The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Friars in the

Philippines
This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most other
parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may
copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License
included with this ebook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in
the United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where you are
located before using this eBook.

Title: The Friars in the Philippines

Author: Ambrose Coleman

Release date: June 15, 2011 [eBook #36438]

Language: English

Credits: Produced by Jeroen Hellingman and the Online Distributed

Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was
produced from images generously made available by The
Internet Archive/American Libraries.)

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE FRIARS IN THE

PHILIPPINES ***
 Types of Natives.

Malay. Biadjaw. Bughis.

 The
Friars in the Philippines.

By
Rev. Ambrose Coleman, O. P.

Permissu Superiorum.
Boston:
Marlier, Callanan & Co.
1899.
 C , 1899,
B M ,C C .

C. J. P S ,T ,
B .
Preface.
The following pages originally appeared as magazine articles. In both England and
America the papers were favorably received; and as the public has not heard the last of
the Friars in the Philippines, it seemed worth while to reproduce them in the more
permanent form of a small volume, making such corrections and additions as might be
deemed advisable. Whatever may be the shortcomings of the book, there is a real and
pressing need for the information it contains, and this need must remain the excuse for its
imperfections. A fair consideration of the facts it presents is confidently expected from a
people whose love of justice is almost proverbial: Truth should have nothing to fear from
Americans.

M 5, 1899.
Contents.
Chapter Page
I. T W R O P 7
II. T C T 37
III. T R L W S 60
O
IV. T R T G 86
V. T S M M 99
P 116

Appendix.

I. AS A M C , 122
D F P
II. E F , O 124
C G W M
III. T W F S C 129
A
IV. I A F 138
V. L F P R , 145
F M
VI. T R .M .H B F , P 149
C M
The Friars in the Philippines.
Chapter I.
The Work of the Religious Orders in the
Philippines.
A recent traveller designates the Philippines as the birthplace of typhoons, the home of
earthquakes,—epithets undoubtedly strong yet well deserved; and typhoons at certain
seasons of the year, with earthquakes at uncertain periods, when taken together with the
torrid heat, trying at all seasons, and the malaria fruitful of fevers, make these islands of
the Eastern seas, which otherwise would be a veritable Paradise upon earth, an
undesirable place of abode to the average European, unless, indeed, he is attracted thither
by the greed of gain or by the nobler desire of missionary enterprise.

For Nature, bountiful there almost to prodigality, revelling in all the luxuriance of tropical
vegetation, has always at hand, as a set-off to her gifts, terrible manifestations of her
power. The seventeenth-century navigator, William Dampier, in his own quaint and
amusing way, describes how the natives and the Spanish colonists of Manila strove to
guard against the double danger of earthquakes and typhoons, and how they both failed
ignominiously. The Spaniards built strong stone houses, but the earthquake made light of
them, and shook them so violently that the terrified inmates would rush out of doors to
save their lives; while the natives from their frail bamboo dwellings, which were perched
on high poles, placidly contemplated their discomfiture. All that the earthquake meant to
them was a gentle swaying from side to side. But the Spaniards had their turn when the
fierce typhoon blew, against which their thick walls were proof. Then, from the security of
their houses, could they view, with a certain grim satisfaction, the huts of the natives
swaying every minute more violently in the wind, till, one by one, they toppled over—
each an indescribable heap of poles, mats, household utensils, and human beings.
 A suburb of Manila after a typhoon.

F P .

By way of general description it may be said that the Philippine Archipelago consists of
between one and two thousand islands; two of which, Luzon and Mindanao, are much
larger than Ireland, while the rest vary in size down to mere islets, rocks, and reefs.
Altogether the islands stretch from north to south a distance as great as from the north of
England to the south of Italy. The soil is extremely rich, and easily cultivated; vast forests
abound, containing valuable timber; and the mineral resources, up to the present
undeveloped, are apt to prove a sure source of income under modern methods of working.

But what concerns us most in this inquiry is the character of the inhabitants. The
population, which is variously estimated at from eight to ten millions, is made up of more
than eighty distinct tribes, which nearly all belong to the Malay race. There are still to be
found in some of the islands, and principally in the mountainous districts, the remnants of
the aboriginal inhabitants, usually called Negritos. These are of a distinctively inferior
type, are rapidly diminishing in numbers, and seem to many observers incapable of
civilization. Our only concern therefore is with the Malays, who form the vast bulk of the
population, and have in the course of time been nearly all converted to Christianity.
Nearly seven million Christians are counted among them; while the unconverted pagans,
together with the Moros, or Malay Mohammedans, of Mindanao and the Sulu islands, are
not a million in number.
Christianity has effected a wonderful transformation in the character of the people,
softening and refining it, as we may judge by the contrast presented by their cruel and
bloodthirsty neighbors in Mindanao and the Sulu group, who, nevertheless, belong to the
same race, and whose characteristics they must originally have shared. Travellers have
not sufficiently dwelt on this important point. They note that the civilized native is self-
respecting and self-constrained to a remarkable degree, patient under misfortune, and
forbearing under provocation. He is a kind father and a dutiful son. His relatives are never
left in want, but are welcome to share the best his house affords, to the end of their days.
Unfortunately for himself, he is a happy-go-lucky fellow, delighting in cock-fighting and
games of chance, and naturally indolent, his wants being so few and simple. He is a born
musician, genial, sociable, loving to dance, sing, and make merry among his companions.
His wife is allowed a degree of liberty hardly equalled in any other Eastern country, a
liberty she rarely abuses. She is the financier of the family, and the husband consults her
when making a bargain. She does her share of the work; but it is not more than her just
share, and she is not overburdened with labor. Hospitality is cheerful and open-handed,
and the traveller is welcomed to the hut of the native with cordiality. The houses of the
natives are kept neat, and are models of cleanliness, and the natives also keep themselves
extremely clean. They are practical and fervent Catholics. At the vesper Angelus bell
“there is always a pretty scene. An instant hush comes over the busy village. In each house
father, mother, and children fall on their knees before the image or picture of some saint,
and repeat their prayers. The devotions over, each child kisses the hand of his father and
his mother, at the same time wishing them good evening. He then makes an obeisance to
each of his brothers and sisters, as well as to each guest who happens to be present,
repeating his salutation with each funny bow. Host and hostess also greet one in the same
way; and in remote places, where white men are a rarity, the little tots often kneel to kiss
one’s hand.” (“The Philippine Islands and their People,” by Dean C. Worcester.)

In sharp contrast to the happy, contented, and peaceful character of the Christian native, is
his southern neighbor of the same blood, the fanatical Moro. Mohammedanism has
accentuated rather than softened the underlying fierceness of the Malay; as it gives him a
religious sanction to cruelty, treachery, murder, pillage, and piracy when directed against
the hated Christian. Inhuman and cold-blooded cruelty is the great characteristic of the
Moro, who will calmly cut down a slave merely to try the edge of a new weapon. For two
centuries and a half the Moros organized piratical expeditions against the northern islands.
The coming of the dreaded fleet of war-praus was looked forward to as an annual event;
and while the southwest monsoon was blowing, vigilant sentinels were on the lookout
night and day from the watch-towers with which every village was provided. The
introduction of modern artillery and quick-firing guns at last turned the scales in favor of
the Spaniards, and the piratical expeditions are now a thing of the past. All Christians,
however, living near the Moros must still carry their lives in their hands, owing to the
juramentados. A juramentado is a man who takes an oath to die killing Christians. The
more Christians he kills, the higher place of course he is to get in heaven, especially if he
loses his own life in the holy work. He dresses in white, shaves his eyebrows, conceals a
weapon under his clothing, and then seizing a favorable opportunity, runs amuck, killing
without mercy men, women, and children. Of course he gets killed himself in the end, but
sometimes not until he has made himself accountable for a great number of deaths.

Though Magellan discovered the Archipelago in 1521, no serious attempt to take

possession of it was made till 1565, when an expedition of four hundred soldiers and
sailors was fitted out by Philip II., and placed under the leadership of Miguel Lopez de
Legaspi. As Philip was inspired by religious zeal, and his principal and perhaps only
object was to spread the light of the Gospel, six Augustinian friars accompanied the
expedition. We may say with truth that it was these missionaries, and the others who
followed in rapid succession, who conquered the Archipelago for Spain. There was no
conquest in the strict sense of the term. The Spaniards in most places simply showed
themselves to the natives; and the religious, who accompanied them, persuaded the
untutored savages to submit to the King of Spain, through whom they would obtain the
two-fold blessing of civilization and Christianity. The retention of these rich and fertile
islands, so great a source of revenue to the mother-country, was on the whole a very easy
task. The religious Orders planted themselves firmly in the colony, and spread themselves
everywhere, winning the natives to Christ, keeping them also in loyal obedience to that
great European power by whose means the missionaries had been sent to them. They were
thus the real bulwarks of Spanish power there, which was kept up rather by gentle
persuasion than by force of arms. Mr. Mac Macking, a Scotch Protestant who spent some
years there, says: “The warriors who gained them over to Spain were not their steel-clad
chivalry, but the soldiers of the Cross,—the priests who astonished and kindled them by
their enthusiasm in the cause of Christ.” Up to a few years ago profound peace reigned;
and a garrison of 4,200 soldiers, 3,500 gendarmerie, and 2,000 sailors and marines, was
considered sufficient to overawe a population of eight millions, besides keeping in check
the fanatical and bloodthirsty Moro pirates.

The Augustinians were the pioneers in religious enterprise, coming, as we said already,
with Legaspi, in 1565, four years before the Philippines were formally annexed to Spain.
They were followed, in 1577, by the Franciscans; and the labors of both Orders were so
successful that Manila was erected into an episcopal see in 1579. Two years later Salazar,
a Dominican friar laboring in Mexico, was appointed bishop; and he brought the
Dominicans with him to Manila. About the same time, also, the Jesuits and the Recollects,
or discalced Augustinians, entered the country. All the Orders went about their work with
truly religious zeal; and their success was so great that at the end of the century Mendoza
could say: “According to the common opinion, at this day there are converted and
baptized more than four hundred thousand souls.” It was a success to be proud of among a
people who, when the missionaries came, had no religious worship, nor temple, nor
priest, nor form of worship. They had but a hazy notion of a Deity, their sole religious
ideas consisting of some imperfect notions of a hell and a heaven. Persecution only gave
zest to the work, both in the Philippines and in the Ladrones, of which we may speak
together in this connection, as they have a common history. Towards the close of the
sixteenth century, as we learn from Argensola, more than six thousand Christians had
already been martyred in the single province of Ternate, “that so,” he adds, “the
foundation of our faith may be in all parts cemented with the blood of the faithful. They
dismembered the bodies, and burned the legs and arms in sight of the still living trunks.
They impaled the women, and tore out their bowels; children were torn piecemeal before
their mothers’ eyes, and infants were rent from their wombs.” (“Discovery and Conquest
of the Molucca and Philippine islands,” by B. L. de Argensola.) Opposition, and
persecution too, came from the Mohammedan element in the population, which was
already formidable when the Spaniards arrived on the scene, Mohammedanism having
been introduced into the islands, especially the more southerly group, as far back as the
thirteenth century. Accordingly the Mohammedans waged a long and bitter warfare both
against missionaries, and the new Christians, numbers of whom were called on to seal
their faith with their blood. Still, in spite of persecution, the Church prospered in those
early days. Dampier, the English navigator, who visited the Philippines towards the close
of the seventeenth century, testifies to the wonderful progress made even then in
civilization. “In every village,” he says, “is a stone church, as well as a parsonage-house
for the rector, who is always one of the monks. These last, who are all Europeans, are
very much respected by the Indians, while the secular clergy, who commonly are Creoles,
are held in contempt. Hence the Government shows great deference to the rectors; for,
generally speaking, the Indians always consult them on entering on any enterprise, or even
as to paying taxes.” Thus, one century had changed the people from savagery to
civilization. In Manila, Dampier found the natives pursuing all the avocations of civilized
life—they were merchants, skilled artisans in various trades, clerks, etc.

There were three large colleges,—two under the care of the Dominicans, and one carried
on by the Augustinians. There was also a Poor Clare convent, containing forty nuns,
together with a hospital and an orphanage. The religious establishments occupied one-
third of the city as it then stood. This may seem out of proportion to the religious needs of
the city; but we must remember that in Manila, then as now, priests of the various Orders
were in training for the numerous missions of the Archipelago, Tonkin, and China (see
Appendix I.), and, at the period of which we are speaking, of Japan as well.

Passing on to the present century, the Rev. David Abeel, a Protestant missionary, says of
the Philippines: “The Church of Rome has here proselytized to itself the entire population.
The influence of the priests is unbounded.” In the year 1858 Mr. Crawford, who was
formerly governor of Singapore, made the following declaration at a public missionary
meeting: “In the Philippine Islands the Spaniards have converted several millions of
people to the Roman Catholic faith, and an immense improvement in their social condition
has been the consequence.” Mr. MacMacking confesses that the suppression of the Jesuits,
who were banished from the Philippines in 1768, “was attended with the worst effects to
the trade and agriculture of the islands.” He adds that “religious processions are as
frequently passing through the streets as they are in the Roman Catholic countries of
Europe.” He testifies that “the Church has long proved to be, on the whole, by much the
most cheap and efficacious instrument of good government and order—even the common
people learn reading by its aid, so much at least as to enable them to read their prayer-
books and other religious manuals. There are very few Indians who are unable to read,
and I have always observed that the Manila men serving on board ships and forming their
crew have been much oftener able to subscribe their names to the ship’s articles than the
British seamen on board the same vessels could do.” Prosessor Ferdinand Blumentritt, a
German Protestant, who is universally acknowledged to be the most competent authority
on all that regards the Philippines, spoke most highly of the missionary and scientific work
of the Religious Orders there, at a meeting of the Vienna Geographical Society in 1896.
The weight of testimony from such a source all must acknowledge; it is indeed a pleasure
to present the German scientist’s remarks to the consideration of fair-minded readers.

“I wish to add some remarks,” said Blumentritt, “about the Philippines, as here the
Catholic missionaries are usually active not only in the spread of Christianity and its
civilization, but also in the geographical and ethnographical exploration of the
archipelago. Unfortunately the reports of the missions of the various Orders are not
equally accessible, e.g., we have very little account of the Augustinian missions, which
are located principally in the lands of the Igorrotes (Northwest Luzon) and on the Island of
Negros, among the Budkidnon savages. The only important publication upon Augustinian
missions which I have been able to see is the Memoria acerea de las Missiones de los P.
P. Augustinos Calzados, Madrid, 1892. According to this the Calced Augustinians in 1892
had in the province of Abra, among the Tinguians, who inhabit it, eight missions with
25,100 souls; in that of Lepanto, two missions with 2,200 souls (Igorrotes); in that of
Bengnet, also two missions, with 849 souls (Igorrotes)—total, 28,149 souls, as against
5,302 in 1829. Between 1874 and 1885 the number of savages and heathens converted to
Christianity was 1,356; from 1885 to 1888 there were 549. In 1892 the erection of 15 new
missions was projected in the provinces of Tiagan, Bontok, Amburayan, and Quiangan.

“The Discalced Augustinians, called in the Philippines ‘Recoletos,’ have missions in the
Island of Palawan (or Paragua) and in the group of the Calamianes. Of these missioners,
Father Cipriano Navarro has especially distinguished himself by his ethnographical
researches; and we owe to him exhaustive reports concerning the Tinitians, Togbanuas,
Tandolans, and Bulalacaunos, among whom Christianity is making steady progress.

“The Franciscans have missions in the peninsula of Camarines, in Luzon, and in every
large island on the Pacific coast. Ethnography and philology are much indebted to their
labors. I need only refer to the works published by myself in the proceedings of our
Society, the vocabulary of the Negrito dialect of Baler by Father Fernandez, and the
accounts of the Bikols, Dumagats, and Atas, by Father Castano.
“We possess fuller accounts of the Dominicans, who are occupied in converting to
Christianity the Alimis, Apayaos, Aripas, Buayas, Bumanguis, Bungians, Calauas,
Calingas, Catalangans, Dadayags, Gaddans, Ibibalons, Ibilaos, and Ilongotes, Ipiutys,
Isinays, Mayoyaos, Guiangans, and other Ifuagao races. In the missionary review, Correo
Sino-Anamito, we find numerous descriptions of popular manners and customs. Some of
these, particularly those written by Fathers Villaverde, Buenaventura, Campa, Malumbres,
Ruis, and Ferrando, I have already in part made more generally known in these
proceedings. The review also publishes occasional sketches, and especially such as throw
light on the river-system of North Luzon, the valley of the Rio Grande de Cagayan. The
results of their strictly missionary labors are very fruitful.

Negritos, the original inhabitants of the Philippines.

F P .

“But however successful the evangelical and scientific activity of the missionaries of the
above Orders, they are far surpassed by what the Jesuits have done in the island of
Mindanaoin, in half a generation, for the spread of Christianity and civilization, as well as
for the geographical exploration of the second largest island of the Archipelago. When
they arrived they found a Christian population only on the east and north coasts, and in a
few isolated spots on the other coast regions, such as Zamboanga, Pollok, Cottabatto
Davao, and Pundaguitan; and these were mostly Bisayos, with a few Bukidnons,
Mandayas, Manabos, and Subanos. In the interior the Spanish Christian settlements along
the Macajalas Bay reached only as far as the upper course of the Rio Tagoloan; on the
Agusan, from the lake region at Linao to its mouth near Butuan, only two villages, Bunauan
and Talacogon. All that was then known of the interior of Mindanao was the Lanao Lake,
the lower course of the Pulangin or Rio Grande from its mouth to Lahabay, and the lake
region belonging to the river of Ligauasan or Buluan. Of the tribes over and above the
Bisayas (Christians) and Moros (Mohammedans), only the Mandayas, Manobos, Subanos,
and Budkidnon (or ‘Monteses’ of the Spaniards) were known by little more than name, but
scarcely mentioned in contemporary literature. Of the rest, except the Tirurayes, scarce the
name was known. Of the Atas, Tagabawas, Dulangans, Tagabelis, etc., even the names
were unknown.

“How changed since then! The network of rivers in the great island is now very well
known; whilst the legendary lake in the centre of the island, whence the Rio Grande was
said to flow, and from which the whole island was supposed to derive its name, has now
happily disappeared from our maps. In numerous sketches and maps the missionaries have
recorded the results of their geographical explorations and discoveries. The manners and
customs of the heathen tribes have been fully described by the Jesuits. It has, therefore,
always been for me the greatest pleasure to communicate the results of the researches of
these Philippine missionaries to wider scientific circles.

“The Jesuits can also point to very great results in their evangelical labors. Most of the
heathen tribes are now entirely or in part converted to Christianity, or have at least settled
round their missions. Even a tribe so obstinately refractory to civilization, owing to their
unsettled and wandering life, as the Mamanuas (who belong to the Negritos) can already
point to Christian villages. But the greatest success of the Jesuits has been in bringing a
considerable number of the Moros on the Gulf of Davao to embrace Christianity. When it
is remembered how rare a thing it is to induce a Mohammedan to be baptized, it must be
especially noted that here not a few isolated Moros living among Christians have abjured
Islam, but that the Moros converted to Christianity are so numerous that, as they can no
longer live among their former co-religionists, they have been allowed to build their
separate villages in the region of the Rio Davao. In 1895 the status of the Jesuit missions
was as follows: 213,065 souls, 17,608 baptisms of children of Christian parents, 2,973
marriages, 7,215 funerals, 8,238 baptisms of converted heathen.

“In the article ‘Die Katholischen Missionen,’ Oscar Hecht gives the number of Christians
in the Philippines as 3,500,000. This is incorrect. The flocks of the different Orders were
as follows:—

Calced Augustinians (1892) 2,082,131

Discalced Augustinians (1892) 1,175,156
Franciscans (1892) 1,010,753
 Dominicans (1892) 699,851
Jesuits (1895) 213,065
Secular Clergy (1892) 967,294
Total, 6,148,250

It is difficult to estimate the number of heathens and Mohammedans; they cannot be under
500,000, nor can they exceed a million.”

Any account of the work of the Religious Orders in the islands would be certainly
incomplete if particular mention of their efforts in behalf of education were omitted. These
efforts were systematically carried out until interrupted by the recent rebellion. The
briefest and most summary mention of what each of the Orders has done, however, is all
that may be attempted within the necessary narrow limits of this volumes.

1. The Dominicans are in charge of the University of Manila, which was founded and
confided to their care about two centuries ago. It has been generally attended by between
two and three thousand natives, who thus receive the benefits of a professional and liberal
education. A correspondent of the Daily Telegraph (London) tells his English readers that
as “the education of the people has been exclusively in their (the religious’) hands, it is
enough to say that practically it does not exist.” The following account of the studies
pursued in the University, taken from the official report of the year 1893–1894, is a
sufficient answer to this unworthy remark.

COURSE OF STUDIES.

The Faculty of Theology and Canon Law has the following courses of lectures:—

1. A course of Ontology, Cosmology, and Natural Religion.

2. The Controversial Course.
3. Dogmatic Theology.
4. Moral Theology and Sacred Eloquence.
5. Sacred Scripture.
6. Canon Law.
7. Ecclesiastical Procedure and Discipline, especially as used in Churches in the
East.
8. Ecclesiastical History.

The eight lecturers in this faculty were Dominicans. There were thirty students.

FACULTY OF JURISPRUDENCE.

1. Metaphysics.
 2. Spanish Literature.
3. Constitutional History of Spain and Natural Law.
4. Canon Law.
5. Political Economy.
6. Ecclesiastical Discipline.

There were six Dominican and nine other professors teaching in this faculty. The students
numbered 405.

FACULTY OF LAW.

In this faculty one Dominican and eleven other professors lectured. There were 60
students.

FACULTY OF MEDICINE.

1. Physics.
2. Chemistry.
3. Mineralogy and Botany.

Three Dominican and thirteen other professors lectured in this faculty. There were 277
students.

FACULTY OF PHARMACY.

There were 89 students. In the schools of practical pharmacy there were 216 students.
Three Dominicans, who lectured on Chemistry, Zoölogy, Mineralogy, and Botany, and
seven other professors taught in this faculty.

This is the higher education which has been given to the natives for more than two
centuries. Is it not something to admire? Can England point back to anything equal to it in
the history of her own colonies? Did England in the last century do anything for the
material or spiritual advancement of the North American Indians? Did the United States
do anything for them till within recent years? Both governments folded their arms while
the Indians were being driven before the face of the white settlers; and during the two
centuries that the policy of extinction was being carried out on the North American
continent the Spanish missionaries were giving the natives of the Philippines all the
benefits of higher education. The contrast is instructive, and places Spain on a far higher
plane as a colonizer than her quondam rival.

Besides imparting higher education in the University, the Dominicans gave secondary
education in two colleges in Manila, to some hundreds of scholars, one principally
devoted to a classical education, and the other suited to those intending to engage in a
mercantile career. Besides these they had colleges in the towns of Cebu, Jaro, Nueva,
Caceres, Dagupan, and Vigan.

2. The Jesuits. “The labors of the Jesuits,” says the Messenger of the Sacred Heart (New
York), are chiefly confined to the Island of Mindanao. They direct, however, a flourishing
college at Manila, and are in charge of an observatory, which, for the perfection of an
outfit and the importance of its observations, ranks foremost among institutions of its kind.
This famous observatory was founded by the Spanish Jesuits in 1865, and was at first
connected with their college at Manila. It was directed until 1896 by the well-known
astronomer and meteorologist, Father Frederick Faura. By its successful prediction of
typhoons, so common and destructive in the Philippines, the observatory soon won for
itself an enviable reputation throughout the archipelago. Up to the year 1882, no fewer
than fourteen of these dangerous tornadoes had been predicted. In consideration of such
valuable services, the observatory was, in April, 1884, raised to the rank of a Government
institution, under the title of “Meteorological Observatory of Manila,” and was transferred
to its present commodious quarters outside the city, with which it has telegraphic and
telephonic connections.

Tower of the cathedral of Manila wrecked by an earthquake.

“The observatory comprises four departments,—the meteorological, seismological,

magnetic, and astronomical. Each department has its special director, and a general
director is at the head of the whole establishment. The meteorological section, provided
with the very best instruments, is the most important of the four, on account of its practical
usefulness to shipping interests. It is in regular communication with more than a hundred
observatories in all parts of the world. Twice every day it receives by cable the
meteorological observations made at the stations of Nagasaki, Tokio, Kabe (Japan),
Shanghai, Amoy, Hong Kong (China), Haiphong (Tonkin), the Island of Formosa, and
elsewhere along the coast. Hence the forecasting of typhoons and cyclones is greatly
facilitated, and enjoys the confidence of all those that sail the Chinese seas. Many of the
instruments used at the observatory are due to the inventive genius of Father Faura, who
was also the first to announce typhoons with certainty, and to discover the laws which
regulate their formation and path. He is the inventor of a peculiar kind of barometer, which
enables any sailor, even if he knows nothing whatever about meteorology, to foresee the
approach of storms, and to guard against them.

“Next in importance to the meteorological department is the seismological or earthquake

section of the observatory, which is rendering great services to a region so much exposed
to earthquakes as the Philippines are. This section is likewise equipped with a remarkably
fine apparatus, many of the instruments having been built or improved by Father Faura.
For many years Father Miguel Saderra Maso has been in charge of this section, which he
has made famous by his learned work, “Seismology in the Philippines,” published in
1895. Father Cirera’s work, “Terrestrial Magnetism in the Philippines,” is also well
known in the learned world.

“The splendid achievements of the Manila observatory found their due meed of
appreciation and praise in the congress of scientists at the World’s Fair, where the
institution was represented by Fathers Algerie and Faura, who came at that time to this
country, and spent some months at Georgetown College.

“Father Faura died in January, 1897. His death was that of a martyr of charity. During his
sickness, Ryzal (or Ryall), one of the insurgent leaders, had been captured, and
condemned to be shot within twenty-four hours. The prisoner was placed in the Chapel of
the Passion, and was offered the spiritual ministration of the Jesuit Fathers. But he
peremptorily refused to see a priest on the plea that he was a Protestant. Several of the
fathers had already been repelled, when Father Faura, who had formerly been Ryzal’s
professor at Manila, rising from his bed of sickness, made a last effort to convert the
unfortunate man. Though at first repelled like the rest, he was at last admitted by Ryzal;
and after arguing and pleading with him for a long time, he had the happiness of bringing
him to repentance, and restoring him to the Catholic Church. The condemned man made a
sincere confession, heard Mass, received Holy Communion, begged pardon for his errors,
and exhorted others to renounce all connection with Freemasonry. His conversion was
entire, and his death that of a fervent Christian. The effort to bring about this conversion,
however, cost Father Faura his own life. Worn out and prostrated by the interview, he was
led back to his bed to die. The conversion of his former pupil was the last apostolic act of
Father Faura, and the crowning of a life of great usefulness in the service of religion and
of science.”

The sons of St. Ignatius also direct the Municipal Academy of which English
correspondents have spoken in terms of high praise.

3. At Vigan also is the Augustinian Seminary and College, under the direction of the
fathers, seven of whom are teachers. Here 209 students were taught the following
branches (as set down in the report): viz., Dogmatic Theology, Moral Theology,
Metaphysics, Logic, Ethics, Physics, Chemistry, Geography, Poetry, Rhetoric,
Trigonometry, Geometry, Algebra, Arithmetic, Analysis, and translation of Latin, Greek,
French, Church History, Natural History, Universal History, History of Spain, History of
the Philippines, Christian Doctrine.

The Augustinians also conducted a splendid orphanage and industrial school at Tambohn,
about a league from Manila. In this establishment 145 boys were taught the following
trades (Report for 1897–1898): Compositors, 13; press-work, 12; bookbinders, 30;
gilders, 3; candle-makers, 43; together with forty-four others too young to be trained.

4. Neither was the education of the female sex neglected. Among other establishments of a
like nature, there was an orphan asylum for girls at Mandaloya on the Tasig, conducted by
Augustinian nuns, twenty-two in number. Last year it contained 122 pupils, who were
receiving instruction in music, the piano, painting, drawing, embroidery, artificial flower-
making, dressmaking, hair-dressing, lacemaking, laundry work, and sewing.

5. The Franciscans had colleges as well, and besides doing their share in the work of
education, devoted their time and services to the hospitals of the Archipelago, the
principal of which are, the Royal Hospital of St. Lazarus at Manila, the Infirmary of St.
Ann in the province of Laguna, and that of Vasa in the province of Camarines.

Scattered through the various islands are the posts or residences, where the fathers of the
various Orders devote themselves to the “nuevos Christianos,” as they are called, or
latter-day converts from Paganism. This zealous work of conversion has never ceased
from the time of the conquest, and the Christian population has been steadily on the
increase till our own times. The recent traveller,1 whom we quoted at the beginning, came
in contact a good deal with the Dominicans during his stay in the Philippines, visiting
several of their outlying stations, and receiving everywhere the greatest kindness and
hospitality from them. He says: “Everywhere you enter the monastery as though it was
your own, eat and drink unstintedly, and sleep, and depart with thanks and a cordial God-
speed from the fathers, and naught to pay for the entertainment.” Alas! the good fathers did
not know the viper they were nursing. Pity they could not recognize in the smiling
Englishman who so readily accepted their hospitality, and “paid naught for the
entertainment,” the man who would speak of them as dirty monks, who would consider it
worthy of sneering record that they did not shave when on board ship, and who, though not
able to discover any evil himself, would repeat gross calumnies about them, got from
hearsay. What he saw with his own eyes belies his wicked innuendos. He says: “It was
plain that they cared naught for the fretting of the world. In many a dismal place, even in
the remotest spots, I found the clusters of monastic exiles perfectly happy—the outer
world dead, or too far away—craving for no other fate. They are enchanted to welcome
and give you of their best; will even, if struggling overland, lend a vehicle or a
ridinghorse to convey you to the next convent on the way. Cheery, kindly, simple people,
practical sermons on ‘Content.’ The monks of Ramblon, a dozen or so all told, were
delighted to show us all that was to be seen. A homely little church was duly exhibited,
built of a local wood, which cuts into planks of extreme width, adorned with a grain
which is brought out with wax and oil. The columns were of solid ebony, the floor of four
marbles, white, gray, black, and brown. All these were the products of this little island.”
A fair-minded man would have duly attributed their joy of mind and kindness to strangers
to religious feeling,—to the love of God, for whose sake these Spanish missionaries had
given up father and mother, friends and worldly prospects, to spend their lives, year in and
year out, without hope of earthly reward, in these spots, dismal enough to the ordinary
tourist, but to them bright and cheery, as they were the posts alloted to them by Divine
Providence for the extension of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ.

“The provincial stations,” he says in another place, “are in reality governed by the
priests.” How could it be otherwise? With a government notoriously weak and inefficient,
with lay officials notoriously corrupt, unwilling to exile themselves in these parts remote
from civilization, unwilling to condescend to learn the many various dialects in use in the
Archipelago, no wonder that the missionary living in the midst of the people to whom he
had devoted his life, and who looked up to him as a father, exercised a sort of parental
authority over them. This was done both in the interest of the civil government and of the
natives themselves. The governors utilized the authority of the missionaries as long as it
suited their purpose; when, on the other hand, the missionaries had to oppose extortion and
unjust treatment, the officials started the cry that the missionaries were ruling the
Archipelago. About those gentlemen Thomas Comin wrote in 1810:

“In order to be a chief of a province in these islands no training, or knowledge, or special service is necessary.
It is quite a common thing to see a barber, a Governor’s lackey, a sailor, or a deserter suddenly transformed
into an Alcalde, Administrator, and Captain of the Forces of a populous province, with no counsellor but his
rude understanding, and no guide but his passions.”

Here are some edifying facts concerning Spanish officials in the Philippines. In five years
Governor-General Manuel de Arandia amassed a quarter of a million dollars; a successor
of Arandia, within the last few years, is reported to have made $700,000 in a single year;
while another is commonly said to have placed millions to his credit during a short term
of office. Men talk openly in Manila of bribing judges to put cases off and off. Little
wonder, then, that, with such a state of rottenness, bribery, and corruption obtaining, the
missionaries on the remote stations have, in the interests of the people, looked after their
worldly affairs.

Interior of natives’ hut, Mindanao.

The missionary zeal of the Jesuits carried them even to Mindanao, an island so
inaccessible by reason of its mountains and volcanoes, its impenetrable jungle, its
unnavigable rivers infested with alligators and pirates, its fierce and savage inhabitants
always at war with one another, that the Spanish Government exercised only nominal
sovereignty over it, and was not ever able even to get its interior surveyed. When the
Jesuits came there some years ago they found a Christian population only on the east and
north coasts, and in a few isolated spots of the other coast regions. Of the interior tribes
many were known only by name. Owing to the zeal of these fathers, not only in missionary
enterprise, but also in geographical and ethnographical exploration, the network of rivers
in the great island is now very well known, the fathers having recorded the results of their
explorations in numerous sketches and maps. They have also fully described the manners
and customs of the heathen tribes. As an instance of the savagery of the Mindanayas, for
the most part fanatical Moros or Mohammedans, it may be mentioned that head-hunting
seemed till lately to be the great object of their existence. The man who had chopped off
sixty heads was entitled to wear a scarlet turban for the rest of his mortal life, and scarlet
turbans are still far from uncommon among them. As there was an inordinate desire among
the doughty and dusky warriors to wear these turbans, it follows that the population was
being gradually but surely thinned out. Yet even here, on the sea-coast of Mindanao, the
Jesuits established their stations, living in the midst of their small flocks, with their lives
in their hands, in close proximity to pirates, savage alligators, and still more savage
scarlet turbans.

The correspondent of the Daily Telegraph blames the missionaries for not teaching the
elements of the Christian doctrine in Spanish to the natives, contrary, as he says, to an
express law, of which they have been continually reminded by the Governor.

The reason, to which he ascribes their conduct is, that they are afraid that if the people
were able to read Spanish books and newspapers they might come to know too much. Any
argument, however absurd it may be, is evidently good enough, in the eyes of these
writers, for use against priests. They are well enough acquainted with the ways of the
Spanish officialdom to know that that law is a piece of blatant stupidity, devised by
Spanish officials too arrogant or lazy or indifferent to learn the native languages
themselves. Picture to yourself, if you can, the missionaries scattered over that vast
archipelago, among a people comprising several millions, and speaking thirty different
languages and dialects, attempting to teach the catechism in Spanish to their flocks. The
supposition becomes still more absurd when we reflect that the Spanish element in the
colony does not exceed eight or nine thousand gathered in and about Manila and a few
other large towns. The missionaries devote themselves so thoroughly to their flocks, and
identify themselves so completely with them, that instead of being able to teach them
Spanish they are in danger, in some instances, of forgetting it themselves. Wingfield came
across a Dominican missionary who apologized for his bad Spanish, on the ground that
having lived continuously for eighteen years with the natives, speaking Visaya the whole
time, he had almost forgotten his own tongue. Our experience in Ireland, even at the
present time, is that in Irish-speaking districts, those children who are taught their
catechism in the native tongue, though they may know English, have a far firmer grasp of
the Christian doctrine than those who have been taught it in English. This fact alone shows
the patent absurdity of the law quoted with such assurance by the correspondent of the
Daily Telegraph.

1 “The Wanderings of a Globe-Trotter in the Far East.” By the Hon. Lewis Wingfield. 1889.
Chapter II.
The Charges made against the Religious
Orders considered.
In 1896 we heard of a rising in the remoter parts of the Philippines. It was represented by
the Spanish authorities, who at the time controlled the news, as of no moment,—an
insurrectionary movement that they could easily cope with. Yet it continued, and seemed to
wax strong; and, from rumors which began to circulate about the murdering of monks and
friars, we began to feel that the insurrection was of no ordinary or commonplace nature. It
seemed to be directed against the Church, and to be animated by a deadly spirit of hostility
to the representatives of Religion. It was, of course, impossible at the time to form an
opinion as to the cause of the insurrection, from the isolated facts which were allowed to
come under the notice of the public. Now, however, the mists have cleared away; and we
hope to be able to prove in the course of this inquiry that the insurrection was a
premeditated and deliberate attack made upon the Church by a native secret society which
was affiliated to, and adopted the methods of, that type of Freemasonry which gave the
Carbonari to Italy and the Jacobins to France; a type whose disastrous work has been so
much in evidence in South and Central America. It has unfortunately been busily at work
for the last thirty or forty years, indoctrinating the simple natives of the Philippines with
the modern watchwords of “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity,”—liberty meaning in this case,
license, anarchy, cruelty, bloodshed; equality, the confiscation of property; and fraternity,
an impious combination against all opposed to their designs. And foremost amongst these
were undoubtedly from the very first the friars, spiritual guides of nearly six millions of
native Christians, who, in consequence of their opposition, drew upon themselves the
bitter hatred of the members of the Craft. It thus happened that the friars found themselves
denounced and vilified in Spanish newspapers, in circular letters issued at Madrid, in
speeches at the lodges and clubs, and in the Cortes. The grossest calumnies the foulest
lies, were industriously circulated, to lower their prestige, and bring about a downfall of
that spiritual power they had justly acquired, and were exercising for the good of souls.
Nothing was known of the struggle in these countries until the Spanish-American war
brought the Philippines into prominence before the English-speaking world. Then the
echoes of the struggle began to reach our ears. Unfortunately for the friars, the sympathies
of the world were sought, and sought successfully, to be enlisted on the side of the secret
societies, or insurgents, who in this instance were for the most part one and the same. The
news sources were shrewdly manipulated by astute conspirators to foster their own
purposes; on the Philippine question, world-wide circulation was given to false and
calumnious reports and interviews with leaders of the insurrection, full of virulent ex
parte statements, while no exposition of views has been sought for from any
representative of the friars. As an instance of the unreliability of these interviews,
circulated through such justly suspected channels, we give the following. The
correspondent of the Daily Telegraph sent, a few months ago, through “Reuter’s Special
Service,” an interview he had with Dr. Nozaleda, the Archbishop of Manila, who, by the
way, is a Dominican. From this interview it would appear that the Archbishop is opposed
to the friars. He is made to say: “The religious Orders must go. That is undeniable,
because the whole people are determined on their abolition, and are now able to render
their retention impossible.”

His Grace is also made to blame the Orders for causing dissensions, and thus increasing
the disfavor with which they are regarded. The correspondent adds that he heard privately
from a native priest that the reason the Archbishop hopes for the expulsion of the religious
Orders is that the friars have grown too strong for him, and that he expects by getting rid of
them to increase his own authority. Now, apart from the fact that the Archbishop is a
member of a religious Order himself, a fact worth a dozen arguments, we may dismiss the
whole interview as unreliable, since very recently the Archbishop delivered himself, to a
representative of the Chicago Record, of quite opposite sentiments.
 Most Rev. Dr. Nozaleda, O. P.

A M .

Mr. Halstead made a special journey to Manila to study the situation. He was most
favorably impressed by the Archbishop, whom he has undertaken to vindicate before the
people of America. One paragraph from his interview with the Spanish prelate is of
special interest at the present moment: “When asked what it was that caused the insurgents
to be so ferocious against the priests, and resolved on their expulsion or destruction, he
said the rebels were at once false, unjust, and ungrateful. They had been lifted from
savagery by Catholic teachers, who had not only been educators in the schools but
teachers in the fields. The Catholic orders that were singled out for special punishment
had planted in the islands the very industries that were the sources of prosperity; and the
leaders of the insurgents had been largely educated by the very men whom now they
persecuted. Some of the persecutors had been in Europe, and became revolutionists in the
sense of promoting disorder as anarchists. It was the antagonism of the Church to
murderous anarchy that aroused the insurgents of the Philippines to become the deadly
enemies of priests and religious orders. It was true that in Spain, as in the Philippines, the
anarchists were particularly inflamed against the Church.”

Prominence was given last year, in some of the English newspapers, to statements made
by a certain Señor S. C. Valdes, a Filipino, who managed to have an interview sent to the
papers, through “Reuter’s Special Foreign Agency,” that unfortunately met with a degree
of credence on the part of uninformed persons. It is instructive to analyze some of the
statements of this gentleman, and compare them with statements made for a similar
purpose by other correspondents.

Desiring to prove that the inhabitants of the Philippines are not naked savages, he says:
“The inhabitants of the groups of Luzon, the Viscayas, and the coast of Mindanao are very
advanced in their education. Seventy-five per cent of them can read and write. There are
many native lawyers, doctors, chemists, members of the military and scientific corps,
naval and land architects, merchants, naval officers, engineers, and also clever and
competent secular priests.” We believe Señor Valdes. In spite of what he says a little
further on about numbers of them going abroad for their education, we will refer our
readers to the last chapter, in which we showed that it is owing to the friars, who have all
the primary, secondary, and higher education in their hands, that the people are so
advanced in education; and as regards the native lawyers and other professional men, we
refer them to the official reports we have given of Manila University, with its two
thousand students, carried on by the Dominicans. As to Mindanao, what the Jesuits have
done there can also be referred to. Valdes speaks of “clever and competent secular
priests,” having no word of praise for the religious; and yet the higher education of the
secular clergy is entirely in their hands.

After this eulogium of his own people by Señor Valdes, is it not curious to find quite an
opposite statement, made for party purposes, by the Manila correspondent of the Daily
Telegraph? Wishing to show the incompetence of the friars, he says: “The education of the
people is entirely in their hands; it is enough to say that practically it does not exist.” And
this of a country in which seventy-five per cent of the people, according to Señor Valdes,
can read and write, a percentage that would put more than one European country to the
blush.

Señor Valdes asserts that the friars exercise a tyrannical power in the islands. He says that
they generally consider it an act of disrespect for the natives to visit them except with bare
feet. It is curious that Wingfield in his travels never noticed this, and he had an eagle eye
for such deficiencies. Valdes is not afraid to make the incredible statements that “the friars
and the military said that before the reforms should be granted they would first drown the
insurgents in their own blood,” and that General Weyler, when he was captain of the
islands, ordered the town of Calumba to be destroyed, and set fire to, simply to please the
Dominicans, who were anxious to show their power and influence. Proofs, and strong
ones, not mere assertions, are needed when religious men, voluntary exiles from country
and friends for the sake of civilizing rude peoples and bringing them under the sweet yoke
of Christ, are accused of atrocious cold-bloodedness—wantonly slaughtering innocent
men, women, and children for the sake of satisfying a sense of vanity!

The truth of the matter is that the rebellion in the Philippines against Spanish rule was not
the uprising of a whole people. Of what account, except for brute force, are some
thousands of armed men out of a peaceful population of eight millions. The insurrectionary
movement was planned, and directed almost exclusively, by the mestizos, or half-breeds,
—the offspring of the union between native women and the Chinese, who form a large
proportion of the town population, and do most of the retail trade. We must bear in mind
that the leaders had at their command all the refractory elements of the native population,
—the banditti, who always existed in large numbers, and were to be found in force not
many miles from Manila, and the common criminals whom, at the first opportunity, they let
loose from the jails to scour the country. Can we form a judgment of the sentiments of the
Philippine people from the conduct of men who have treated their prisoners inhumanly,
who have burned churches, looted schools and hospitals, treated ordinary ecclesiastical
students with brutality, and subjected nuns in convents to shameful treatment? We have
plenty of evidence that the natives on the whole are very much attached to the friars, whom
they rescued, when they were able, from the hands of the rebels, and visited constantly
while in captivity, doing their best to alleviate their sufferings. That they were peaceably
disposed, and loyal to Spain even during the progress of the rebellion, we may assume
from Blumentritt, who said, as late as 1897, when recounting his experiences as a
scientific explorer in these islands, “There are not many colonies where less blood has
been shed, and also not many where the conquered people have so little hatred of, or
dislike to, their conquerors. Already so richly endowed with the climate and the beauty of
their native land, as well as with the fertility of the soil, the natives of the Philippines are
neither despised nor downtrodden by their rulers, whom they, in their turn, do not dislike.
One must, therefore, reckon them among the happiest in the world.” His words, of course,
do not apply to the noisy demagogues, to the Freemasons, to the insurgents, at least to that
part of them who have not been forced into revolt by threats and terrorism, but they
describe the state of the millions as yet untouched by the rebellion. Señor Valdes and other
men of his stamp are fond of declaring the resolve of the inhabitants of the Philippines “to
be free and civilized,” and “not to be subjected to the domination of friars or monkish
orders.” They speak the sentiments of a small, but very active and noisy, portion of the
population; the overwhelming majority are happy, peaceful, and contented.
We now come to the painful task of noticing some reckless charges made by Señor Valdes
against the honor of the missionaries, a painful, yet necessary task, as the accusations were
laid before the public some months ago without comment or contradiction of any kind.
Señor Valdes may think he has scored a point in making such outrageous statements; but he
falls into error if he imagines that what might be readily swallowed by those who hate
religion in Spain and Portugal would be as readily accepted in England, Ireland, and
America. Apostate priests and nuns, lecturing under the auspices of Mr. Kensit and the
Protestant Alliance, have long since made England familiar with this gross kind of
calumny, directed against our own priests and nuns, repeated, too, year after year, without
proof or shadow of foundation, so recklessly and shamelessly, indeed, that the lecturers
only excite the disgust of the sensible portion of the Protestant body. Señor Valdes, with
unscrupulous audacity, tries to beslime the character of some of the missionaries, by
falsely laying to their charge the foulest and most unnatural crimes, which for decency’s
sake we refrain from detailing. According to this vile traducer the priests are devoid of all
honor and all the moral virtues.

Now, if this were the first time that these atrocious charges were made, we might say with
horror, “Can such things be?” but we learn from the memorial presented last April by the
heads of the various religious orders in the Philippines to the Spanish government, that
charges of a similar nature were constantly repeated in Spain during the previous eighteen
months, both in public and in private; made the subject of speeches in clubs, published in
anti-clerical newspapers—all part of the campaign against the friars, all done to lower
their prestige in the eyes of the people, and to obtain their expulsion from the islands. If
there were any truth in the charges, they would have been brought home to the friars long
since; names, dates, and documentary proofs would have been given. A list of well-
proven cases, say twenty or thirty, would have been made up, and submitted to the
Government, to whom the Freemasons were clamoring for their expulsion. But, like the
stuff the anti-clerical lectures nearer home are made of, the charges were always vague,
general, and indefinite. The religious, like men of honor, took no notice of these calumnies
for a long time, hoping that gradually the storm would blow over; but seeing that it
increased day by day, and that they were being constantly insulted by petty government
officials in the Philippines, they at last took notice of them, amongst other charges, in their
memorial to the Government last April. They asked, as a matter of right and justice, that
names and dates would be given, that documentary proofs would be produced. They
affirmed that the charges were not made by those who had access to them, and saw them
day by day; that their convents were open to inspection; that the lives of those living in the
country parts were well known to their parishioners; that in those places they could not act
in disguise, as their Spanish nationality made them conspicuous objects to all eyes. They
asked, in case their innocence were doubted, that proper judicial proceedings would be
instituted.
It has been reserved to an American general to put the last finishing touch to the lurid
picture drawn of the lives of the friars in the Philippines, by giving wide circulation in the
columns of the New York Herald to a calumny which simply outstrips the imagination.1
The general guards himself by professing to know nothing about the matter except from
“common report,” freely circulated in the Philippines. Now the general, as a man of honor,
might well have allowed these reports to come in by one ear, and go out by the other; or
even if he had kept his mind in suspense, as is evidently the case, he might have refrained
in the meantime from publishing the “common report” to the world, knowing how prone
human nature is to fasten on the bad, and to believe in evil report, though unproven.
“Every student of Blackstone,” says the general, “knows very well what was considered
in the olden time to be the feudal right of the lord over the female vassal who married on
his estate. It may be surprising to many to learn that the Filipinos allege vehemently that
the monastic Orders claim and exact this feudal right on the marriage of the young
Philippine girls.” Common report then, according to the general, charges the friars with
exacting and claiming a right opposed to the fundamental laws of Christian morality; a
right which, if it ever existed in fact, is at any rate lost in the dim distance of time, and is
utterly unknown to the world at the present day. It is a pity that the ordinary laws of
evidence which are used in dealing with laymen are thrust aside when dealing with
priests, and that fanaticism in the latter case is allowed full play for its imagination. Last
April (1898) the heads of the religious Orders in the Philippines, in their memorial to the
Spanish Government, which by being published both in Spanish and in French, and
circulated widely, was intended as a challenge to the civilized world, demanded that all
gross charges of a like nature should be investigated by legal means, and that evil-doers
should be punished according to law, if they existed in fact. The challenge as yet remains
unanswered; yet what would have been more easy to prove in the meantime than such an
open and flagrant violation of justice and morality? If proofs could have been had they
would have been gladly brought forward by the leaders of the rebels, who have been
clamoring for the expulsion of the religious Orders for the last three or four years, and
who are by no means simple and unsophisticated savages, but men educated enough to be
able to conduct newspapers of their own.

With common sense for their guide, let Protestants reflect for a moment that the
Philippines form an integral part of the Catholic Church, that the religious Orders that are
governed by generals in Rome, that systematic visitations are made, and that the conduct
of every individual is subjected to strict ecclesiastical scrutiny from time to time.
Accordingly, unless they hold that the authorities in Rome are willing to allow an
appalling evil of the kind to go on without protest, how can they believe that it exists at
all?

“In any case, I can assert without a shadow of doubt,” adds the general, “what the
Herald’s readers have been previously told by its correspondents—that the people are
very bitter towards the monks.” Whom does he mean by people? Had the general and the
newspaper correspondents come in contact, during their brief stay in the Philippines, with
the six millions of people till lately under the care of the religious Orders? It is true that
those who have fomented the rebellion, and the thousands who have joined the insurgent
ranks, are bitter towards the monks, or rather friars. But it is by this time a well-known
fact that numbers have been drawn in through sheer terrorism, and that numbers of others
have been tortured and killed owing to their refusal to join. Mr. Wilson’s late experience
on his sugar plantation bears ample witness to this. It is easy enough for a few thousand
desperate and armed men to cow fifty times their number of peaceful and unarmed tillers
of the soil. The millions, dumb so far, will be found, on closer investigation, to represent
far different feelings towards the friars than the noisy rebels who, coming in contact with
the American troops and correspondents, profess to represent the feelings of the great
body of the nation.

In direct contradiction to the “common report,” circulated by General Meritt, is a

testimony to the virtue of the Spanish friars in the Philippines, published some years ago
before the present troubles began, by the United States Government in a consular report. In
this report Mr. Frank Karuth, F.R.G.S., who in his capacity as president of the Philippines’
Mineral Syndicate had wide experience with the natives, and came into intimate relations
with the friars in remote provincial stations, writes of the latter as follows: “In these
communes or parishes the priest, especially if he be a Spaniard, as is generally the case,
exercises supreme power. He is the father and counsellor of his people, and helps them
not only with spiritual advice, but also furthers their material interests. The Spanish
priests, friars of strict orders, come to the islands for aye and good, and with scarcely any
exception do their duties faithfully and devotedly.” Is not this testimony, given without any
ulterior party motives, of more value than the evil reports poured into the ears of
newspaper correspondents by the interested leaders of the Philippine rebels? (See
Appendix II.)

A few quotations from Protestant travellers who visited the Philippines before the
insurrection had biassed men’s minds, and distorted plain facts, will go a long way in the
refutation of these flippantly uttered and unspeakably gross calumnies. “It is said,”
observes the wife of the American navigator, Captain Morrell, “that in Manila there are
more convents (both of men and of women) than in any other city in the world of its size;
and the general voice of natives and foreigners declares that they are under excellent
regulations.” And then she describes their inmates. “They all seemed full of occupation.
There is no idleness in the convents, as is generally supposed;” and this her own account
of the various works accomplished in them sufficiently proves. Moreover, “their
devotions begin at the dawn of the day, and are often repeated during the whole of it, or
until late in the evening, in some form or other. I was born a Protestant, and trust that I
shall die a Protestant; but hereafter I shall have more charity for all who profess to love
religion, whatever may be their creed.” Sir John Bowring, in 1859, speaks of their
influence, an influence generally acquired only by men of holy lives. He says: “They
exercise an influence which would seem magical, were it not by their devotees deemed
divine.” Dr. Ball, an American Protestant traveller, speaks highly of the character of the
Spanish friars in the Philippines. Of one whom he met at Manila, he says: “He has a fund
of knowledge on almost every subject, speaks six or seven languages, and has declined an
offer of the presidency of the seminary here, preferring to remain always in the capacity of
missionary.” Mr. MacMacking, another Protestant, who spent some years in the islands,
says, in 1861: “Most of the priests I came in contact with appeared to be thoroughly
convinced of, and faithful to, their religion in its purity.”

Church and convent at Lipa.

After reading these testimonies, we may well open our eyes in astonishment and wonder at
the audacity of those who disseminate these flagrant lies about a body of men
distinguished by learning and holiness. And yet no one, however holy and devoted his life
may be, is safe from the tongue of the calumniator. Robert Louis Stevenson had to take up
his pen in defence of the heroic martyr of the leper, Father Damien, vilified by a Protestant
minister. Father Damien lived for years in that place of horrors, Molokai, among the
lepers, and died a martyr of charity; and, while no Protestant minister was to be found
heroic enough to follow his example, one of them, housed in his comfortable bungalow,
and jealous of his fame, made unfounded charges against him. So is it ever with the world.
And above all, nothing need surprise us in the words and acts of the Philippine insurgents
and their abettors. As an instance of their power of concocting a story to bring the friars
into disrepute, we give the following account of an attempted poisoning of Aguinaldo by a
Spanish prisoner and eleven Franciscans, taken from the Republica Filipina, one of their
journals—telegraphed at great expense to Europe by “Reuter’s Special,” and inserted in
English papers. The story goes to show that his steward saw a Spanish prisoner, who was
allowed a certain amount of freedom, tampering with a bowl of soup intended for
Aguinaldo. The steward tasted a spoonful of the soup, and fell dead on the spot. On
learning of the affair, the populace attempted to lynch all the Spanish prisoners, amongst
whom were forty Spanish priests, detained as hostages; but through Aguinaldo’s
intervention, they were protected from violence. The next day at the sitting of the new
National Assembly, Aguinaldo’s representative told the story of his narrow escape, and
the members unanimously adopted the chairman’s suggestion that they should go in a body
to the president’s house and express their sympathy and congratulations. To crown this
farce, a special thanksgiving service was held in the church at Malolos that evening. The
really silly part of the story is that eleven Franciscan priests, confined as prisoners, were
alleged to have been involved in the conspiracy against Aguinaldo’s life, and it was
evidently on this supposition that all the priests were on the point of being massacred. A
few days afterwards the story was contradicted. After all the fuss and all the expense of
the telegrams, it turned out that the steward did not fall dead, and that no priests were
concerned in the supposed plot. Still the lie did its work, both in the Philippines and
nearer home; for many heard it, and read about it, who did not see the contradiction.

We are not at present in a position to follow Señor Valdes in his statements regarding the
dissensions between the native and European friars, the rigorous exactions and tithes, “the
friars calling themselves owners of the land cultivated by the natives, claiming rents and
tithes which the real owners refused to pay,” but we believe them to be as baseless as his
other accusations. Before he made them, the friars had already, in their memorial to the
Spanish Government, taken notice of similar accusations, and asked for dates, names, and
proofs. It is curious that no English travellers to these regions have taken notice of these
supposed oppressions on the part of the friars. They are concocted with the design of
expelling the friars from the islands, and confiscating their property, which they have
lawfully acquired, and added to, by three centuries of industry. It is true they are rich in
landed property, but their riches do not enable them to live individually in luxury. They
are used by the Orders for the purposes of the Orders, in furthering education, maintaining
hospitals, orphanages, and industrial schools, and in extending their missions not only in
the Philippines, but also in China, Tonkin, Japan, and Formosa. Is it not better, in the
interests of the people, that they should continue in their possessions than that they should
be robbed of them, turned adrift, and their property divided among needy adventurers? It
is a significant fact that one of the first acts of the National Assembly of the insurgents was
to vote a pension of seventeen thousand dollars to Aguinaldo, enough to keep several
religious communities in existence. These political heroes are anxious to enrich
themselves at the expense of others, and to spend in luxury what has been gathered
together through three centuries of frugal living.

A sample calumny of the kind, to which unbounded circulation has been given, and its
sufficient refutation from an authoritative source, to which no such reproduction has been
extended, may not be out of place by way of conclusion to our present remarks. Let the
candid reader judge whose words—the Rev. Mr. Parkhurst’s or Father McKinnon’s—bear
the ear-marks of personal investigation and conscientious endeavor after the truth—“the
whole truth and nothing but the truth.”

These statements of Mr. Parkhurst were clipped from an article in The Cleveland Plain
Dealer (Cleveland, O.); and the clipping was forwarded to Father McKinnon, who is at
present in Manila, and has been appointed superintentent of all the schools in that city by
General Otis, the commander-in-chief of the American army of occupation. Father
McKinnon was requested to comment upon the extract. The clipping and the reply are
herewith presented.

“The Rev. M. M. Parkhurst, who has lived in the Philippines for many years, says that when a couple wish to
get married in the Philippines, they must first pay a fee of £6. or $30, to the priest, who otherwise will not
marry them. As a native rarely earns more than $5 a month, he seldom has the necessary marriage fee, so
that common law marriages are the frequent result. The baptismal fee, he says, is $25, and the death fee is
$60 for an adult, and $10 for an infant. A poll-tax of $25 for each man, and $15 for each woman, is collected;
and when a man builds a house, he must pay $10 for having a chimney blessed.”

To this Father McKinnon replies:—

“Responding to your favor with regard to quotation from the Rev. M. M. Parkhurst, I may say it is a lie from
top to finish. I have been here now nearly six months, and have studied the religious question very carefully,
and, I think, without prejudice. To do this I had every opportunity, not only here in Manila, but also in the
outlying provinces, as I have been sent frequently into the interior of the island to treat with the insurgent
leaders. I have conversed with all classes of people, and I think I know pretty well just how matters stand.
This statement of Mr. Parkhurst is in keeping with all the other statements made by irresponsible preachers
concerning the condition of the Church here.

“Marriage here is like marriage any place else. If the parties are able to do so, they are supposed to pay
something. If not able to pay, the priests here marry them gratis, just as you or I or any other minister of the
Gospel would do in America. For rich or poor there is no fixed fee; that is left entirely to the contracting
parties. For baptisms and deaths the rule is the same. Indeed, for baptisms, the priest rarely receives more
than one dollar, and more often he receives nothing at all. For deaths they go even further than we do in
America, as every parish church keeps a supply of coffins on hand to give gratis to those who are too poor to
employ an undertaker. For the grandest funeral here no more than $25 is paid, which would be equal to $12 of
our money. Even the fee of $2.50, charged for marriage license reverts not to the Church or Government, but
to the orphan asylums.

“Speaking of orphan asylums, the Girls’ Asylum here gives a dowry of $500 to every inmate upon her
marriage. This is but a sample of what is done in the way of charity here. We hear great tales of the wealth
of the monks, and inquire about the property, and find it is a large estate, the income of which is used to
support some hospital, or other charitable institution under the care of said monks. Nowhere in the world is
charity in greater evidence than here. The magnificent hospitals and orphanages, schools of industry, etc.,
would be a credit to any nation. The amount expended thus every year is enormous. The monks individually
 are as poor as the proverbial church mouse. The islands have a population of over 8,000,000 Catholics. The
priests number about 1,500; and considering the weakness of human nature, and the fact that many of them
live alone out in the wilds far away from brother priests, it is not surprising that an occasional one falls. Even
among the saintly (?) Parkhurst’s brethren, I have heard of an occasional fall in civilized America. But here
these are the exceptions. The main body of the clergy are good, holy men. The Archbishop is a man who
would be an honor to any church in any country. He is a man of eminent learning and great sanctity. He is
one of the kindest and most charitable men I ever met. Go to his house at whatever hour you will, and you
will find it crowded with poor. For each he has a kind word and some substantial aid. Every cent he receives
is given away in this manner. His personal magnetism is such that to meet him is to admire him. If I wished to
use names I could give you many striking examples of this. In our army and navy we had some Parkhursts
who were ready to believe or say anything about his Grace.

“For those whom I thought worth convincing that they were wrong, I arranged that at different times they
should meet him. The result was the same in every case. Each would come away feeling that his Grace was
a much maligned man. To-day, among the American officials in both army and navy, no man is more
respected than the Archbishop of Manila. In my estimation, there are two reasons for the impression which
has gone abroad concerning the Church here. Aguinaldo, knowing in his cunning that there were many
Parkhursts in America, thought lying about the Church would be an excellent way to gain the sympathy of
Americans. I have been all over the country, and find no poverty anywhere. For Indians I find them
remarkably well instructed. The one who cannot read and write is an exception. There are public schools
supported by the Government all over the country. Had Mr. Parkhurst desired to learn the truth, he could
have done so from his brother ministers, who are chaplains here. I think they would have told him the truth, as
I have found them to be a nice gentlemanly lot of men, ever ready to do me a kindness. Some of them I
admire very much for their devotion to the sick and those in need.”

1 See interview with General Merritt, published in the New York Herald, Oct. 4, 1898.
Chapter III.
The Rebellion Largely the Work of a Secret
Organization.
Secret societies, and, above all, that great guild known as Freemasonry, are certainly
foremost, if not controlling, factors in the warfare made upon throne and altar during the
last one hundred and fifty years.

In saying this we do not intend to express any opinion for or against the sentiments of
Protestant Freemasons in England and the United States, numbers of whom, no doubt,
reprobate the anti-Christian spirit this association shows on the Continent and in Spanish
America. They have been brought up to regard it as a perfectly harmless and beneficent
institution, and cannot understand the attitude taken with regard to it by the Catholic
Church.
 Collection of seals and stamps used by various branches of the “Katipunan,” the secret society of
the natives.

It is quite true that Freemasonry may have in these countries kept to its original
constitution, which, we may admit, was of a beneficent nature. But what Catholic writers
on the subject urgently insist upon is, that on the Continent it very soon assumed a political
and dangerous character. For a long time it was not condemned by the Church, and many
good Catholics of rank and position gave their names to it. It was only when its dangerous
tendencies came to light that it received solemn ecclesiastical condemnation, and that
Catholics were forbidden to join it. For more than a century this secret guild has been at
the bottom of the revolutions that have desolated the modern world. Some years previous
to the French Revolution, German envoys of the Society of the Illuminati advised the
French Masons to form a political committee in each lodge; and in time, as Robison
remarks, these committees led to the formation of the Jacobin Club. “Thus were the lodges
of France,” says this writer, “converted in a very short time into a set of affiliated secret
societies, corresponding with the mother lodges of Paris, receiving from thence their
principles and instructions, and ready to rise up at once when called upon to carry on the
great work of overturning the State. Hence it arose that the French aimed, in the very
beginning, at subverting the whole world. Hence, too, may be explained how the
revolution took place almost in a moment in every part of France. The revolutionary
societies were early formed, and were working in secret before the opening of the
National Assembly; and the whole nation changed, and changed again and again, as if by
beat of drum.”

In Spain, since its introduction it assumed a sanguinary and virulent character; it brought
about revolutions and civil wars, embittered classes against one another, wronged and
starved the clergy, robbed, turned adrift, and banished the religious Orders.

There is, indeed, a good deal of difficulty in tracing all these evils to the action of the
Freemasons; for on the Continent, especially in Spain, the society has been always of a
more secret nature than in these countries. Members of the Craft in England and the United
States are generally well known to belong to it; their halls and lodges in the larger towns
are imposing and conspicuous; their emblems and badges are often seen in the light of day.
But on the Continent we see very little of all this; it is a thoroughly secret society; the
members and their movements are carefully veiled from sight. As we said before,
Freemasonry, on its introduction to the Continent, at once assumed a political character.
The Deists and free-thinkers of the last century utilized it as a potent means of combining
against the Church, and of carrying on their evil propaganda. In this way they were aided
by the Jansenists, with different motives it is true, but still, when it was a question of
opposing the religious Orders, with a whole heart. The working of the society in Spain in
this century has necessarily been more stealthy and insidious than in France, for there it
was face to face with a truly Catholic population devotedly attached to the Church.

By means of atheistical French literature, the works of Voltaire and other unbelievers,
translated into Spanish, brought across the border in large bales, and disseminated through
the Peninsula, the Freemasons had already indoctrinated a large number of active and
restless spirits with revolutionary and anti-Christian ideas, when the troubles and civil
war of 1834 gave them the opportunity they desired of making an onslaught on the
religious Orders. At such times the minds of men are in a ferment, and the most incredible
reports may be spread abroad, and will be implicitly believed by the populace.
Accordingly, on the awful visitation of cholera, which swept over Europe at that time,
desolating cities and towns, and leaving thousands upon thousands of families in
mourning, in Madrid the report was industriously spread by the Masons that the Monks
and Friars had poisoned the wells, and were the cause of the sickness among the people.
In a mad fit of rage the populace rose on all sides, rushed to the convents and monasteries,
and murdered all the inmates they could lay their hands upon. This awful event is referred
to in the Memorial.
Such a state of things may seem hardly possible in the nineteenth century; and yet a similar
catastrophe nearly happened in Lisbon a few years ago, the circumstances of which were
related to the writer by one of the Dominicans who was living there at the time. It appears
that the Dominican nuns had opened a dispensary for the relief of the poor. Strange to say,
the frightful report soon went abroad that the nuns were stealing children, and killing and
boiling them down to make a healing ointment out of their remains. The city was in an
uproar; it was unsafe for priests and nuns to be seen in the streets; and the populace who
really believed the absurd story, being in a furious state of excitement, were on the point
of burning down the convent, and maltreating the nuns.

To return to Spain, the popular rising in Madrid was utilized by the revolutionary party in
carrying out, the following year, the suppression of all the convents and monasteries in the
country. The religious were driven out into the world; and their lands, goods, libraries,
and art-treasures were sold for the benefit of the public debt, and to supply means to carry
on the civil war. The bishops and secular clergy as well were also robbed, numerous
episcopal sees were suppressed, and the goods of the Church declared to be national
property. The Freemason Government promised to look after the interests of the Church by
paying salaries to all ecclesiastics. As a result, Spain was filled, in a few years, with a
poverty-stricken and starving clergy, and ruined churches and mouldering abbeys were to
be seen on all sides. The effects of that great spoliation are still felt in the Peninsula; for
though the religious Orders have revived in the meantime, and numerous convents and
monasteries have been built, the priests are not in sufficient numbers for the needs of the
population, which thereby, in many places, is suffering great spiritual destitution.

The policy of robbery and confiscation was boldly advocated for the Philippines, just
before the late war, in one of the leading reviews of Madrid. Juan Ferrando Gomez, in a
series of articles1 bitterly hostile to the Philippine Friars, proposed their entire
suppression. They should be turned out of their convents and missionary houses by a
secret decree, of which they were to be kept in ignorance till the execution actually took
place. Their convents in Manila would be useful as barracks and Government offices,
their country estates could be divided amongst their tenants, and the rents formerly paid to
the Friars could be commuted into a tax to be paid to the State. Moreover, the Archbishop
of Manila, and any others of the bishops belonging to the religious Orders, should be
forced out of the country. Besides that, the schools and university belonging to the Friars
should also be either suppressed, or taken out of their hands. Reading these flagrantly
unjust proposals in the light of recent Spanish history, and with the help of the Memorial,
we are inclined to believe that, without much further pressure from the Freemasons, the
Spanish Ministry would have carried them out. Fortunately for the Friars, as well as the
natives, they have no voice in the matter now. Under the American flag the religious will
be treated as citizens, having the common right of citizens, neither to be molested in their
persons nor robbed of their property. The President of the United States has declared this
in clear terms to the Holy See.
With regard to Freemasonry in Spanish or Latin America, the Rev. Reuben Parsons has
recently written on the subject (see Appendix III.), substantiating all his assertions by
quotations from Masonic organs or other unprejudiced sources, and clearly exposing the
systematic war which the lodges in South and Central America have carried on against
religion. He shows how it has started revolutions, assassinated the leaders of the people,
exiled the clergy, and persecuted the Church in other ways.

We will now endeavor to trace the history of Freemasonry in the Philippines and its
connection with the insurrection there. In the Philippines Freemasonry found itself face to
face with a simple native population, mostly Christian, and an active body of Spanish
missionaries belonging to various religious Orders, loyal to their native country,
possessing unbounded influence over their flocks, and rapidly bringing under the yoke of
Christ the tribes who were still Pagan. The religious were a power that they could not
hope to cope with for a long time; and so at first they were left unmolested, while the
members of the Craft were gathering converts, and strengthening their position, among a
class more suitable to their nefarious designs, viz., the mestizos, or half-breeds; the
Filipinos, or those who, though born in the country, consider themselves the pure-blooded
descendants of the early colonists; and the Spanish officials, numbers of whom were
already Masons before they went to the Archipelago.

That the Freemasonry in the Philippines has shown itself of a distinctly sanguinary nature
is not to be wondered at when we consider its close connection with Spain. The Lodge of
Action, or Red Lodge, composed of determined revolutionists ready to use the dagger, and
prepared to wade through a sea of blood to accomplish their designs, represented by
Mazzini and the Carbonari in Italy, has a large following in Spain, and was presided over,
a few years ago, by Zorilla, the Grand Master of the Grand Orient of Spain.

The following account of the growth of Freemasonry in the Philippines, taken from the
Rosario, an organ published in Rome, the editor of which has access to special
information, and is in close touch with friars who have been living for many years in the
archipelago as missionaries, will be of profound interest. In or about 1860 many of the
strangers who frequented the Philippines were Freemasons, and members of the lodges of
Singapore, Hongkong, Java, Macao, and the open ports of China. This was at a period
when England, Holland, France, the United States, for colonial reasons of their own,
showed hostility to Spain. It was therefore quite natural that, in those lodges, an anti-
Spanish spirit gradually arose in the Philippines. Seeing this spirit arising, two officials of
the Spanish navy, Malcampo and Mendez Nunez, Freemasons themselves, determined to
oppose Freemasonry to Freemasonry, by founding lodges that would uphold the Spanish
interests; they therefore established, at Cavite, the Lodge Primera Luz Filippina, placing it
under the Grand Orient of Lusitania, and a little afterwards another lodge at Zamboanga,
for the officials, seamen, and civil functionaries who held positions in Mindanao.
In opposition to these, the strangers residing in the Philippines established at Manila itself
a lodge of the Scottish rite, as a point d’appui for the enemies of Spain. They thus moved
the centre of conspiracy against Spain to the islands themselves, and tried to draw the
natives into their nets by giving them important positions in the Craft. The two opposing
factions of Freemasonry also increased their numbers largely by taking in the political
exiles who were sent to the Philippines as a result of the part taken by them in the various
civil wars in the Peninsula, most of whom gave their names and services to one or the
other. It is remarkable that these two bodies, guided by opposite political principles, one
depending on a Spanish centre and directed principally by Spaniards, the other directed
principally by Germans, English, and Americans, and opposed to Spanish interests, found,
at least in one direction, a point of concord, namely, in opposition to the religious Orders.
Although the Spanish Masons were actuated by a love for their mother-country, still the
well-known anti-clericalism of Freemasonry prevailed over every other consideration,
blinding them to the fact that the best and most influential representatives of Spain in the
Philippines were to be found in the religious Orders, who were the only civilizing force
able to deal with the natives. They thus indirectly paved the way for the insurrection; for it
is well known that from the ranks of the opposing factions, and principally by reason of
their anti-clerical tendencies, arose the sanguinary society of the “Katipunan,” which
made it its direct aim to expel the friars, and overturn the Spanish government in the
islands. The Grand Orient, the organ of this society, declared that one of the first articles
of its programme was the extermination of the religious. And here it may be noticed that
the ninth term of the proposals made by the insurgents to America was as follows: “There
shall be a general religious toleration; but measures shall be adopted for the abolition and
expulsion of the religious communities, who, with an iron hand, have hitherto demoralized
the actual civil administration.”

In the meantime the lodges increased in number, so much so that two years ago there were
at Manila sixteen lodges affiliated to the Grand Orient of Spain, and one at least in every
pueblo in the province of Luzon, and also lodges in Zamboanga and the Visaya Islands; an
Anglo-German club-lodge, on the books of which were inscribed the names of a great part
of the Government officials; also the German Union, affiliated to the Grand Orient of
Berlin; the society of S. Giovanni del Monte, a centre common to Swiss, French, Belgian,
and Dutch Masons. In all, according to reliable statistics, there were a hundred lodges and
25,000 initiates. When the Freemasonry of the Philippines had gathered these numbers
under its banner, the insurrection broke out; and of its 25,000 members, at least 20,000
were to be found in the ranks of the rebels. Could any clearer proof than this be found that
the insurrection in the Philippines is the direct work of Freemasonry?

We will here call the attention of our readers to two of the illustrations. The first is a
collection of various seals and stamps, forty-one in number, in use by the various branches
of the Katipunan, the sanguinary secret society of the natives. Masonic emblems, the
compass and rule, the triangle, the keys, etc., are to be found on almost all of them,
proving beyond doubt the Masonic direction and constitution of the society. Turn now to
the other illustration,—a Masonic apron, worn at secret meetings and also in battle, which
was found on the body of an insurgent after an engagement. No concealment here of
methods to be used,—the head dripping with blood, one hand grasping the bleeding head,
and the other holding the dagger, sufficiently attest to all beholders the work of the Red
Lodge.

The position of the religious Orders in the Philippines, just before the war broke out
between Spain and America, had become so perilous and unbearable, that they addressed
a long Memorial to the Spanish Government, exposing their grievances, explaining the
cause of the rebellion, and suggesting remedies suitable for the situation.

This Memorial is more than a mere appeal to the Spanish Government. It is a challenge to
the civilized world, made by men whose dignity and honor have been outraged by awful
and unjust charges levelled at them by their foes, and spread far and near by the press. The
Memorial has been put into print by the Friars, and scattered through Spain; it has been
translated into French, and now it appears (in a condensed form) in an English dress. Up
to the present, at any rate, it has not drawn forth an answer from those whose calumnies
were the cause of its appearance. From another point of view it is of interest, giving us
valuable information as to the causes of the rebellion, and incidentally throwing a lurid
light upon the dark places and dark workings of Freemasonry. Its importance as an
authoritative exposition lies in the fact that it emanates from the combined heads of all the
religious Orders in the Philippines, men having under their spiritual care more than five
out of the six millions of Christians in the country. It is signed by Father Manuel Gutierrez,
Provincial of the Augustinians; Father Gilberto Martin, Commissary-Provincial of the
Franciscans; Father Francisco Ajarro, Provincial of the Recollects; Father Candido
Garcia Valles, Vicar-Provincial of the Dominicans; Pio Pi, S. J., Superior of the Missions
of the Society of Jesus.
 Masonic apron used by the “Katipunan.”

We doubt whether any official notice was taken of the document by the Spanish
Government. It was on its way to Spain when, on the declaration of war by America,
Admiral Dewey stole into Manila Bay by night, shattered the Spanish fleet the next
morning at Cavite, and laid siege to Manila. In the meantime, too, the Spanish Ministry
had resigned; and when the documents arrived at its destination, a new Ministry was in
office, under Señor Sagasta, with a new colonial minister. Facing bravely, but
ineffectually, one of the greatest powers in the world, the new Ministry was entirely taken
up with cares and interests on which depended the existence of Spain as a nation.

A striking characteristic of the memorial is its outspoken insistence upon Freemasonry as

the principal cause of the Rebellion, a position not unwarranted in view of the evidence
presented on previous pages. So much has been heard from the opponents of the religious
Orders, that a word from themselves, in their own defence, will have all the air of novelty.
We reprint the memorial, quite confident that it will not suffer by comparison with what
has appeared from the other side.
The Memorial of the Philippine Friars to the Spanish Government, April, 1898.

TO HIS EXCELLENCY THE COLONIAL MINISTER.

In addition to the telegram sent to His Excellency, the Governor-General and Viceroy, on the first of this
month, that he might bring it officially under your Excellency’s notice, which the said authority informs us has
been done, we, the Superiors of the Congregations of the Augustinians, Franciscans, Recollects, Dominicans,
and Jesuits, have the honor of presenting this Statement to his Majesty, King Alfonso XIII., and, in his royal
name, to Her Majesty the Queen Regent, Dona Maria Christina, to the President and Members of the Crown
Ministerial Council, and more especially to your Excellency as Colonial Minister. We address this Statement
directly to your Excellency, according to law and custom, that you may deign to bring it under the notice of
the exalted personages already mentioned, and even if it appears desirable before the nation, duly assembled
in the Cortes of the kingdom.

The time has come for us faithful and constant upholders of Spanish rule in the Philippines to break our
traditional silence. The hour has also come to defend our honor, which has been so much assailed, and our
holy and patriotic ministry, which has been the object of the most terrible and unjustifiable accusations and
calumnies.

We have borne patiently with the Freemasons and insurgents, known and unknown, who in their newspapers,
clubs, and public meetings, have for the last eighteen months insulted and vilified us, accusing us, among other
things, of having fostered the rebellion. We have discovered to our sorrow that a number of Spaniards, having
resided in these islands for a longer or shorter period as the case might be, on their return to the Peninsula
have spoken of us in terms which they would not have dared to employ if in place of being priests and friars
we had been laymen, or if instead of being ecclesiastical congregations we had belonged to civil or military
bodies.

The religious of the Philippines, far away from Europe, alone in their ministry, scattered to the furthermost
corners of the Archipelago, and without any other companions and witnesses of their labors than their own
dear and simple parishioners, have no other defence save right and reason. Conscious that we have always
been loyal and patriotic subjects, and have always fulfilled our duties and the obligations to our holy ministry,
we have borne patiently and silently, according to the advice of the Apostle, insults and calumnies from the
very persons to whom we had offered our services in all Christian sincerity. We have kept silence under
insults from persons calling themselves forsooth Catholics, but who are infected with the practical Jansenism
of certain latter-day reformers. We even suffered in silence certain false information, most dishonoring to the
religious Orders, to be brought before the Cortes last year. It was asserted, not only in private, but in
important, centres, that the prestige of the religious Orders in the Philippines was so shaken that it would be
necessary to drive them out by armed force. It was also declared, as most dishonoring to a great nation like
Spain, to have commissioned friars to furnish information about the Philippines, and to have asked their advice
in the form of a memorial presented to the Senate. In addition to all this, the gravest accusations, some
directed against a worthy prelate, were brought against us, veiled, however, under the guise of impartiality and
gentle correction. Before long the clamors will be renewed in a different tone; and we shall see the
reproduction in the Archipelago, with more or less cruelty, of that historical period in the Peninsula of 1834–
1840.

REASONS FOR OUR SILENCE TILL THE PRESENT TIME.

We believed that a wise and prolonged silence, added to that prudence and magnanimity which should always
distinguish religious orders, would have sufficed for good and discreet persons, and that they would have
repelled the accusations, and formed a judgment that would be proof against these repeated attacks. But,
instead of calming down, the storm appears to increase daily. The Treaty of Biac-na-Bato has furnished to
many the opportunity of renewing the crafty insinuation, nay, bold affirmation, already made by the rebel
chiefs, that the religious institutes were the sole cause of the insurrection. One of the chiefs of the
“Katipunan” secret society has declared in his paper, The Grand Orient, which, like a plague, is still
scattered over the islands, that one of the first articles in his programme is the expulsion of the religious
Orders. In the Peninsula as well as here, the Freemasons and others who second their efforts have
recommenced the war against us. They have published manifestoes at Madrid, in which, misusing the name
of the Philippine natives, they demand vexatious and disgraceful measures against the clergy.

If under these circumstances we still remained silent, our silence would be attributed, and rightly so, to fear or
to guilt. Our patience would be called weakness; and even sensible and solid Catholics, who recognize the
injustice of the attacks made against us, might be led to believe that we were really stained with guilt, or that
we had fallen into such a state of moral prostration, that we could be ill-treated with impunity.

THE RELIGIOUS ORDERS PERSECUTED BECAUSE THEY UPHOLD RELIGION.

On what grounds are the religious bodies persecuted? Simply because they uphold true and sound doctrine,
and have never shown a weak front to the enemies of God and of their country. If we had shown ourselves
pusillanimous in sight of the works of Masonic lodges, and in presence of the propagation of the politico-
religious errors imported from Europe; if we had given the faintest mark, not of sympathy, but even of
toleration, to the men who were scattering broadcast false notions of liberty condemned by the Church; if
patriotism had cooled in our hearts, or if the innovators had not found in each Philippine religious an
intractable and terrible adversary to their plans,—the religious congregations would never have been
disturbed. On the contrary, we should have been extolled to the skies, the more so because our enemies do
not ignore the fact that, were we to help them in the Archipelago, were we to give them our support, or at
least were we to remain silent, we should thereby give them an undisputed victory.

But they know well that our standard is no other than the Syllabus of the great Pontiff, Pius IX., so frequently
confirmed by Leo XIII., wherein all rebellion against the powers is so energetically condemned. Yea! truly
they hate us, and under different names and on divers pretexts they are making such a cruel war upon us that
it would seem as if the Freemasons and Revolutionists had no other enemies in the Philippines than the
religious bodies.

THE RELIGIOUS PERSECUTED AS LOYAL SPANIARDS.

Apart from their essentially religious character, the regular clergy of the Archipelago are the sole Spanish
institution, permanent and deeply-rooted, which exists in the islands—a vigorous organization well adapted to
these regions. While the civil and military officials on the one hand, who come from Spain, live here only for a
time, fulfilling their duties more or less wisely according as it is for or against their private interests, and yet
are ignorant of the languages of the country, and have only a superficial intercourse with the Islanders, we,
the religious, come over here to sacrifice our whole existences, dispersed often one by one amongst the
remotest tribes. When we bid an eternal farewell to our native shores, we voluntarily condemn ourselves, by
virtue of our vows, to live forever devoted to the moral, religious, and civil education of the natives; and we
have waged many conflicts in their behalf.

CRAFTINESS OF THE INSURGENT CHIEFS.

Seeing that we were the most deeply rooted, influential, and best-respected Spaniards in the country, and that
we would come to no terms with them or their projects, the rebel chiefs determined to demand our expulsion
from the Government. They were aware that they would be backed up in their demand by many among the
Spanish residents in the Archipelago, who, led by passion and ignorance, lend a willing ear to all who declaim
against the religious Orders, especially when the watchwords used are “Free Thought,” “Liberty of the
Press,” “Secularization of Education,” “Ecclesiastical Liquidation,” “Suppression of the Privileges of the
Clergy.”

Thus the password among the rebels became, especially since the Treaty of Biac-na-Bato, the emancipation
of their country. They declared they had no dislike to Spanish administration, nor any intention of separation
from Spain; what made them rise in rebellion were the abuses of the clergy, and their only demand was the
expulsion of the religious Orders. But these were lying declarations, as numerous judicial and non-judicial
documents containing the plans of the conspirators have proved. They made these false professions because
they knew that if they declared that the insurrection was brought about by the numerous abuses of power
which have been committed by civil and military functionaries, they would have all the Spanish element in the
Archipelago leagued against them, and would have the door closed to all their means of propaganda.
ACCUSATIONS AGAINST THE RELIGIOUS ORDERS.

We ask, in the first place, where are these abuses which are always the subject of their declamations in the
clubs and lodges? We preach the Gospel, and not only do we draw to a civilized life the barbarous tribes of
the Archipelago, whom we have preserved peaceful and happy for three centuries, as the whole world
knows, but we have always been the defenders of the natives, who are subjected to a thousand vexations on
the part of the Spanish lay residents. At all times we have watched over the purity of the Faith and the
preservation of good morals, showing ourselves inflexible against illegal exactions, immoral games, and those
who lead scandalous lives. After all that has been written against us for so many years, we defy our
calumniators, and do not fear an honest and impartial examination of our lives and works. Let those who
murmur and speak against us, prove by exact dates and authentic documents that their accusations are well
founded.

They say we are enemies of education and of the diffusion of knowledge; if by education they mean the
teaching of doctrine condemned by the Church, we are at one with them; but there is no education in the
ordinary sense of the term, primary, secondary, or superior, in the islands that has not been founded,
encouraged, and sustained by the clergy. It is well known that very few of the native officials who went
through their course in our schools have taken part in the rebellion; and the proclaimers of “Free-thought” are,
for the most part, individuals who failed in their career, and were the refuse of our classes.

As to the accusations of immorality which are recklessly levelled against us, all we have to say is that
everyone can see our monasteries and convents and ourselves, and can form a judgment on our lives; the
parish priests and missionaries are alone, surrounded by a multitude of natives; everyone can see what we
are doing, and hear what we are saying; our European figures and sacerdotal character bring us into such
prominence before the people that it would be stupid to imagine that we could hide our doings.

We consider, as not worthy of reply, the impudent assertion that in the country parts we are despots; that in a
thousand ways we suck the blood of our tenants; charges often before refuted by the most explicit
documentary evidence. Neither is it worth while speaking of the abominable calumny of attributing to us the
passage through the country with armed force, and the imprisoning and torturing of those implicated in the
first revolt. All this is part of the absurd fable that we are absolute masters, not only of the consciences of the
people, but of the Archipelago itself; statements contradicted by the very men who make them, when they
declare in the Cortes that we have lost all influence and all prestige in the islands.

CAUSE OF THE REBELLION.

The utter want of religion to be found among a great number of the Spanish residents, the facility with which
the ancient laws of the Archipelago were changed, the instability of the public functionaries, a fruitful source
of abuses, contributed for several years to discredit the Spanish name. But Freemasonry, as the world knows,
has been the principal cause of the social disorganization of the Philippines. The Hispano-Philippine
Association of Madrid was Masonic; the Masons were almost alone in the work of urging on the natives to
make war on the clergy and the Spanish residents; they authorized the founding of lodges in the Archipelago.
It was the Masons, too, who formed the “Katipunan” society, so essentially Masonic that in the terrible
“compact of blood” they make, they are actually imitating the Carbonari of Italy.

In consequence of the teaching of the Freemasons, the voice of the parish priest has no longer any effect on
numbers of the natives, especially at Manila and in the neighboring provinces, where they are accustomed to
give themselves airs of importance and independence; and the prestige of the Spanish name has grown
considerably less, and disappeared entirely in many places. What wonder, then, if the powerful instincts of
race awoke, and that, pondering on the fact that they had a language and climate and territory of their own,
the rebels should try to build a wall of separation between the Spaniards and the Malays? Is it not natural that
having been brought to believe that the friar is neither their father nor the pastor of their souls, nor their friend
and enthusiastic defender, but, on the contrary, a spoiler, and that the Spanish resident is only a money-
grubber, having more or less power and authority, they should have desired to free themselves from the
Spanish authority?
Six months ago the “Katipunan” society was limited to the mountains of Langua and Bulacan, where the
rebel chiefs had taken refuge, and also counted some adherents among certain tribes in touch with the
insurgents. But now the plague is widespread; the insurgents violating the promise made to the gallant
Marquis of Estella, and at the call of a secret signal, have scattered themselves over the central provinces,
and by means of cruelty and terrorism have succeeded in enrolling in their ranks a great number of natives
who after the submission at Biac-na-Bato gave pledges of fidelity to Spain. They have also succeeded in
intrenching themselves at Capiz and in other parts of the Viscayas. The rising in Zambaies, Pagasinan, Iloco,
and Cebu are all of recent origin; and the same may be said of the “Katipunans” discovered at Manila.

However, the greater part of the country is not yet perverted; a wave of hallucination and fanaticism has
passed over it, but the heart of the people is still sound, and with careful management they will return to their
usual habits of peace and submission. The move wealthy classes are also sound, and are against the rebellion.

We frankly tell the Government that if it does not aid the Church, the revolutionary movement will increase
every day, and it will be morally impossible for the religious to remain here any longer. What good is it for us
to do our duty to the people when others are allowed to undo our work at the same time? Of what use is it for
us to teach the people to be docile and submissive when their worst passions are excited by others, who tell
them to make nothing of our teaching? What professor could teach successfully if his pupils were met outside
the classroom by respectable persons who told them to despise his lessons? The civil authority, according to
the teaching of the Church, ought as far as possible to be a bulwark to religion and morality. If the
Government, therefore, does not protect us from the avalanche of insults hurled against us; if it does not root
out the secret societies; if it allows our sacerdotal character to be trodden under foot while our enemies
destroy the fruit of our labors,—we regret to say that we cannot continue our ministry in the islands.

Spain has bound herself very stringently to obligations of this nature. One of the laws of the Code of the
Indies says expressly on this point: “We command the Viceroys, the Presidents, the Auditors, the Governors,
and the other functionaries of the Indies, to favor, and aid, and encourage the religions orders who are
occupying themselves in the conversion of the natives to our entire satisfaction.”

The spirit that moved Philip II. was seen in the answer he made to those who advised him to abandon the
Archipelago, in view of the little revenue they brought to the Crown. He said: “For the conversion of only one
of the souls that are there I would willingly give all the treasures of the Indies, and if they were not enough I
would add those of Spain. Nothing in the world would make me consent to cease sending preachers and
ministers of the Gospel to all the provinces that have been discovered, even if they are barren and sterile, for
the Holy Apostolic See has given to us and our heirs the apostolic commission of publishing and preaching the
Gospel. The Gospel can be spread through these islands, and the natives can be drawn from the worship of
the demon by making known to them the true God, in a spirit alien to that of temporal greed.”

UNJUST CONTEMPT SHOWN TOWARDS THE RELIGIOUS ORDERS IN THE PHILIPPINES.

An idea has spread since the Revolution in Spain of 1868 that the Philippine Friars are a necessary evil, an
out-of-date institution which has to be kept up for reasons of state. This unworthy idea, manifested sometimes
with frankness, sometimes with a certain reticence, and which wounds us to the quick, has been constantly
brought forward by our enemies. The natives who have been to Spain are fully aware of it; without leaving
the Philippines, a great number of natives have observed it, and are at present trying to propagate it in the
Archipelago. Very numerous, too are the Spanish residents who are hostile to us, owing to an anti-clerical
spirit or to jealousy; in fact, we have enemies in all classes of society.

Many people, in consequence, think that our very existence in the country is simply owing to pity and
condescension on the part of the Government; that we are merely tolerated, and are of less value in the eyes
of the civil authorities than the members of any lay profession. With a marvellous facility all the evils that
affect the country are laid at our door; and every time a governor makes a gross blunder in dealing with the
natives, the evil consequences which flow from it are put down to us. Now, every class of society has a right
to ordinary respect and fair treatment; we receive neither one nor the other, but are treated with absolute
contempt. This humiliating situation, as individuals obliged to greater perfection than other Christians, we
patiently bear with; but as religious orders we cannot put up with it any longer, for we see only too well how
this treatment injures our ministry, and destroys our influence with the people committed to our care.
 If the Government through an error to which we cannot give unqualified respect, since it is contrary to the
real interests of religion and of our country, believes that the mission of the Orders in the islands has come to
an end, we nevertheless say to them: “We await your dispositions with sincerity, but do not flatter yourselves
that in adopting measures against our religious professions you can burn a light both before Christ and before
Belial.” If, on the contrary, we are to remain in the islands, no one can deny that it is necessary to protect our
persons, our prestige, and our ministry; our country must show that she is pleased with us, and treat us as her
children; we must not be abandoned to our enemies as a thing of no value, and made victims of the
resentment of the Freemasons. We do not fear martyrdom, which is an honor we do not feel ourselves
worthy of; on the other hand, we do not wish to die as criminals abandoned by their friends and protectors,
and deprived of all honor.

It is incredible that religious men placed in our position could be the cause of the woes of the Archipelago.
We prefer to resign our ministry, and see ourselves expelled, rather than continue our mission in the islands, if
the situation does not better itself before long. We have done our work well in these islands, and we feel sure
that we shall be able to do our duty quite as well elsewhere with the grace of God.

1 In the Administration, of Madrid, one of the leading reviews in Spain.

Chapter IV.
The Rebels and Their Grievances.
We cannot view without grave misgivings the unexpected turn that affairs have taken since
the war, and the second war which has broken out between the rebels and the Americans.
It is now plain that it was entire independence from all control that the promoters of the
rebellion were looking for from the very beginning; this being well known to the Friars all
along, and clearly indicated in their memorial to the Spanish Government. Aguinaldo and
his companions have unlimited confidence in themselves, and aspire to form a civilized
republic. The character of this pure-souled patriot may be judged from a transaction he
had with the Spanish Government. After the armistice of Biac-na-Bato, he was bought out
by them, and took thousands of dollars as his price for leaving the country for aye, never
to return. He pocketed the money, and went off to Hongkong; but when the Americans
came to Manila, and destroyed the Spanish fleet, this worthy returned to the Philippines,
and once more raised the standard of rebellion. As a result the Americans are apt to find
themselves burdened with a war expenditure, even heavier than that borne by Spain in her
effort to prevent a repetition in the Philippines of the gruesome story of San Domingo and
Hayti. All colored and tropical races have a tendency to revert to their original type and
the barbarous customs of their ancestors. The blacks got possession of Hayti nearly a
century ago, at which time they were at least domesticated, and partially civilized, having
been in contact with the white man for the two previous centuries. They have gone back,
and not forward, ever since. The history of the black republic is a bloody revolution every
two or three years, distinguished by acts of barbarous ferocity. Life there at the present
day is a hideous caricature of civilization and Christianity. Incredible as it may seem,
there has been a revival in the remote villages of the old African serpent-worship, and
child sacrifices, followed by cannibalism.
 Rt. Rev. Joseph Hevia, O. P.

A N S .

Ten Spanish Augustinian Friars recently came to San Francisco from the Philippines (see
Appendix IV.). In an interview with the representative of the San Francisco Monitor they
stated that it was not through fear of the Americans that they had left Manila, but, on the
contrary, they believed that the Church would prosper under American rule. They said that
the respectable element in the Philippines, though they had been quite content with the
Spanish rule, and deeming it all that could be expected under the circumstances, are yet
welcoming the Americans as a relief from insurgent atrocities. “The insurgents,” they said,
“are an undisciplined mob of rioters, led by a demagogue. They are the riff-raff of the
islands, men without principle or property in most instances. Aguinaldo has them pretty
well in hand to-day, but to-morrow they may disintegrate into fifty gangs. Aguinaldo is an
ungrateful renegade, who was fed, clothed, and educated by Catholic priests. He is a mere
puppet in the hands of the Freemasons.1 It is to these worthies and organized anarchy in
Europe that we may trace the origin of the trouble in the Philippines. Soon after the
destruction of the Spanish fleet, the insurgents wrecked our schools, robbed and despoiled
our missions and churches, and drove us into Manila. About fifty priests were brutally
killed by them. As our field of work was thus laid bare, we decided to leave the
Philippines. What made us depart was the discouragement of seeing the work of years
destroyed by the men we had gone to teach, and the improbability of being able to build up
the work again immediately.”

The Filipinos have already shown proof how far removed they are from civilized ideals,
and how dangerous it would be to leave them to themselves, by their inhuman treatment of
their Spanish prisoners. Besides ordinary Spanish civilians, they have kept in captivity for
several months hundreds of Friars, including one hundred Dominicans, and the Dominican
Bishop of Neuva Segovia, Mgr. Joseph Hevia, whose portrait we give. Numbers of the
Friars have lately died of the hardships to which they were subjected. A letter, received
some time ago from one of them by a friend in Manila, describes the ferocious and satanic
hatred shown towards them by the rebel chiefs. They were stripped of their clothes, hats,
and shoes, robbed of their money, spat upon, tied to trees, and flogged several times.
Daily they were forced to work on the public roads from morning to evening, under a
broiling sun, receiving food and drink barely sufficient to support life. The leaders
mocked at and jested over their sufferings. Though violent threats were held out against all
who succored them, their parishioners seized opportunities of coming to visit them, and
alleviate their miseries. From other sources we learn that the noses of some of the
prisoners were slit, and a cord passed through the aperture, to be used as a leading-string
by their guards. The venerable Bishop was subjected to the grossest indignities. One aged
Friar was placed on a saddle, and jumped upon till blood flowed from his mouth and
nose. Another, it is said, clothed only in a rain-coat, was carried in triumph for two
hundred yards, and then cudgelled to death amid savage cries. Some were crushed to
death between boards. Nuns in the convents were subjected to shameful treatment. In the
name of common sense, we ask if men who encourage or permit such atrocities are fit to
control and guide the destinies of eight millions of people. (See Appendix V.)

Of course the policy of the Press in general has been to keep these atrocities from the eyes
of the public. As it did not suit political purposes to publish them, they have been kept
concealed. Owing to this careful management, the sympathies of the world have been
enlisted on the side of the “poor downtrodden Filipinos.” An impartial examination of the
grievances of the latter, and of the catch-cries by which the leaders have seduced a
considerable portion of the simple natives, will not reveal very much against either the
civil or the ecclesiastical rule of the Spaniard. As in everything human, we may suppose
that neither was absolute perfection; but, all things considered, there was less to justify
rebellion in the Philippines than in most parts of the world where the black is ruled by the
white man.

One of the grievances of the rebels is that nearly all the ecclesiastics in the Archipelago
have been Spaniards, and they demand an entirely native clergy. Now, the Catholic Church
has been always most anxious to form a native clergy in missionary countries, but
insuperable difficulties have often prevented the realization of this idea. Among colored
races there is a paucity of real vocations; it is hard enough to get the people to live up to
the Christian ideal without adding thereto the grave responsibilities and life of self-
sacrifice of the priesthood. An example in point is the Black Republic of Hayti. It is a
Catholic country, nominally at least. The people have retained the Faith taught them by the
white man, though preserving such a dislike to him that no white man can own a yard of
land in the country. Yet such is their inability to provide themselves with priests of their
own blood that they are forced to fall back on the services of a French Bishop and French
missionary priests, who do all the spiritual work of the island. Another case in point is
that of Cuba, an island containing a million and a half of inhabitants, Cubans and
Spaniards, of which only forty-three of the former are to be found in the ranks of the
priesthood. There has never been any distinction made between Cubans and Spaniards in
the two Seminaries of Havana and Santiago de Cuba; all are received alike, and treated
alike if they have a vocation; of the forty-three priests, twenty-eight hold parishes, and the
rest have other positions of trust, which shows that it is simply owing to lack of vocations
and not to any other cause that we must ascribe their fewness in number. In the
Philippines, as far back as two centuries ago, the experiment was made of forming a
native priesthood, with doubtful success, however, as Dampier informs us that the natives
generally held the native priests in contempt, while holding the Spanish clergy in the
greatest esteem. We must, perforce, conclude that in the Philippines, as in other countries,
it is simply lack of vocations that keeps the number of the native clergy at such a low ebb.

Another grievance, brought well to the front by those who have written on behalf of the
Filipinos, is the taxation, which is alleged to have been excessive. The writer is informed
by one who lived many years there that it was not. However this may be, all taxation is
odious to primitive and half-civilized communities, who are inclined to look upon the
most necessary taxes, without which no stable government could be carried on, in the light
of oppression. The Americans will have the same difficulties to face with regard to
taxation as the Spaniards had, though not in the same degree maybe, as the country will be
opened to trade in a freer way than formerly. In the interests of order, and also to protect
the people from unjust imposts, the Friars were in the habit of acting as their counsellors
in these matters, and used to exhort their parishioners publicly and privately to pay the
necessary taxes. A passage from Blumentritt, whom we have quoted more than once in our
previous chapters, will go to show that all this was done in the interests of the people: “In
the following centuries the Friars continued to extend their protecting hand over the
natives, preventing, as far as possible, any oppression on the part of the Government
employés.” Yet this action of the Friars, good, charitable, and necessary under the
circumstances, has been used by the promoters of the rebellion as a fulcrum to raise the
Friars, in the eyes of the poorer classes, into the invidious position of tax-gatherers,
tyrants, and abettors of oppression. Without doubt, cruel methods, for which, however, the
Friars were not responsible, were in vogue in dealing with defaulters, as we may see in
Dean Worcester’s lately published work on the Philippines; but it is nothing less than
downright hypocrisy to raise a chorus of condemnation against the Spaniard on this score,
when it is well known that no other nation, in trying to solve the eternal difficulty about the
taxation of colored and subject races, has emerged from the conflict with clean hands. We
remember reading some years ago of very cruel methods employed in the gathering of the
taxes in British India, in some of the up-country districts; and within the present year of
grace, 1899, two books have appeared dealing with the English and the Dutch in South
Africa,2 both of which, in describing the punishment inflicted on those refusing to pay
taxes to the ruling powers, could easily give points to the colonial Spaniard for cruelty.
What is very remarkable about the Protestant missionary is that, instead of condemning the
barbarities described in his book, of which he was an eye-witness, he approves of them,
even to the extent of giving his sanction to the inhuman crime of blowing up with dynamite
the caves in which four hundred men, women, and children had taken refuge. The Rev. Mr.
Rae’s opinion of the campaign against Malaboch for his refusal to pay taxes, a campaign
in which women and children, and men bearing flags of truce were fired upon recklessly,
is that “the Transvaal Government was doing a much better work than any Christian
missionary has yet accomplished.” God help the Filipinos if Protestant missionaries of
this description are going to overrun the field of labor left vacant by the deaths and
expulsion of the Spanish Friars. One great test of the mild rule of the Spaniard in that
country is that the native population has increased since the conquest, instead of being
almost exterminated, as is the case in North America and in many of the colonies of
European States. We hope that the American rule will be characterized by clemency and
justice. A hypocritical cry has been raised in the States about the tyranny and oppression
under which the natives are said to be groaning. The rule of the Spaniard has indeed been
imperfect enough; but America should approach the question of reform with becoming
modesty, seeing that her own record in dealing with the Indians has been stained by many
a crime against human rights. They have been robbed of the country which once was their
own, and driven back from reservation to reservation, while even the rights guaranteed to
them by Government as compensation for what they lost have been often filched from them
by unscrupulous officials. The light recently thrown on the case of the Pillager Indians has
disclosed cruelty, open robbery, and a disregard of solemn obligations. In the Philippines
the Americans will find the natives still in possession of their country; a people, once
wild and nomadic like the Indians, brought into settled habits of life by three centuries of
missionary effort; a people, in fine, who, whatever is said to the contrary by noisy
declaimers and demagogues, have been on the whole well pleased with their lot.
 Tagalogs planting rice to the sound of music.

It is quite evident from the words and acts of the rebels that they have been casting
envious eyes on the large landed estates of the Friars, hoping, on their expulsion, to have a
division of the spoils among themselves. Already, before the war, an iniquitous plan of
confiscation was boldly advocated in Spain itself. We now learn to our surprise, from the
Church News (Washington, D.C.), that this cry has found an echo across the Atlantic from
Protestant pulpits in the States. Besides the fact that confiscation would be robbery pure
and simple, as the estates are not national property, and have not been given by the
Government, but have been acquired in the usual way by purchase, and in the course of
three centuries have naturally grown large, confiscation of the estates would mean a great
calamity to the country, even if the Friars were allowed to go back quietly to their
parishes, and resume their spiritual ministrations among the people. For it was by means
of the estates that the Friars introduced agriculture and settled habits of life among tribes
originally nomadic; it was by means of the estates that they got them to live in villages,
and introduced amongst them the arts of civilized life; it was by means of the estates that
they acquired the power of inducing them to labor with a certain amount of regularity and
method, the great safeguard against a relapse into a state of savagery. Giraudier, who was
director of the “Diario” of Manila, and spent thirty years in the Archipelago, says
something very much to the point: “The natives, with some rare exceptions, are in need of
tutelage, without which they would fall back to the customs of their ancestors, a tutelage
that no one can exercise better than the Friars.” The latter, in truth, made themselves all in
all to the people. Within the precincts of the monasteries were to be found workshops for
teaching carpentry, forges for teaching the natives the working of iron, brick and tileyards,
—in fact, most of the mechanical arts were fostered and encouraged by the Friars. The
villages they formed around them presented a pleasing picture of happiness and content, in
startling contrast to the homes of those who were still pagan and uncivilized.

A former British consul thus describes them: “Orderly children, respected parents, women
subject but not oppressed, men ruling but not despotic, reverence with kindness,
obedience with affection—these form a lovable picture by no means rare in the villages of
the Eastern Isles.” Will such a happy state of things exist under new conditions? We are
very much inclined to doubt it. The experiment tried in some of the islands of the West
Indies of making the blacks small freeholders, and planting them on the bankrupt planters’
estates, has not been attended by such beneficial results to the land as to justify our hoping
that a similar experiment in the Philippines will prove a success. The natives of the
tropics in general are like overgrown children, blessed with the virtues and cursed with
the faults of children, rejoicing in present abundance, and destitute of that measure of
forethought for the morrow, without which there can be no human progress. What a
contrast at the present day do the civilized villages under the paternal care, and, if you
will, government, of Friars present to the wild nomadic life still led by the natives of
Mindanao, whom the Jesuit fathers are trying to bring under civilizing influences. We find,
from letters written lately by some of the fathers there, that human sacrifice is still in
vogue, and murder, pillage, and slave-catching extremely common. We fear that self-
government, bringing in internal conflicts between the various parts of the Archipelago,
would gradually reduce most of it to this deplorable state of things, and that the Philippine
Republic would be as great a travesty on civilization as Hayti.

1 One may hardly be surprised that men who have been robbed of their all—reputation, home, and field of work—are
apt to be plain-spoken and severe when commenting upon those who have upset their lives, and destroyed the sacred
interests of the religion to which they had devoted themselves unreservedly. Friends, on the other hand, of the persons
who have been the instruments of such ruin, are sure to uphold the destroyers as heroes, great of character and great of
deed. Hence we need not be surprised at such different estimates of Aguinaldo as those referred to in a sketch of him
published in the American Review of Reviews for February, 1899.

“Friends and enemies agree that he is intelligent, ambitious, far-sighted, brave, self-controlled, honest, moral, vindictive,
and at times cruel. He possesses the quality which friends call wisdom, and enemies call craft. According to those who
like him he is courteous, polished, thoughtful, and dignified; according to those who dislike him he is insincere, pretentious,
vain, and arrogant. Both admit him to be genial, generous, self-sacrificing, popular, and capable in the administration of
affairs. If the opinion of his foes be accepted he is one of the greatest Malays on the page of history. If the opinion of his
friends be taken as the criterion he is one of the great men of history, irrespective of race.”

2 “Rhodesia and its Government,” by H. C. Thomson. “Malaboch; or Notes from my Diary on the Boer Campaign of
1894 against the Chief Malaboch,” by the Rev. Colin Rae.
Chapter V.
The Sectarian Missionary Movement.
We cannot too strongly emphasize the great interest that the change of government in the
Philippines should have for the English-speaking Catholic public, seeing that a Catholic
population, as large, if not larger, than the combined Catholic population of England,
Ireland, Scotland, and Wales, is about to be brought under the influence of the English-
speaking world, and in close touch with the Catholic Church in America, and, perhaps,
later on, with ourselves. It is not more than a year ago that the Philippines were a terra
incognita to us all, of which we knew the name, but hardly more. For the last ten months
they have been brought under our notice almost daily by the newspapers, and monthly in
the pages of the magazines. In the meantime their control has passed from Spain to
America, and a conflict of opinion is going on in the States as to the desirability or
otherwise of undertaking the responsibility of their future government. Under the old
régime, Church and State were united: a bearable condition when the State was
professedly Catholic, but absolutely unbearable when antagonistic influences control the
Government, hamper the Church in her freedom of action, and degrade her into servitude
while professing to be her protector. In the new condition of things the Church will be
placed in the same position as it holds in America, free to flourish or to die, depending
entirely on its own resources, and neither helped nor persecuted by the State. Its ministers,
though not enjoying any special privileges, will be protected in their persons and property
in common with all other citizens. Its religious orders will receive the same recognition as
secular corporations, and their corporate property will be respected. So far so good; for it
was to be feared that the Spanish Government, who had been deterred only by political
motives from suppressing the Orders, yielding at last to the pressure of the Freemasons,
might have confiscated their property, and either secularized their members or expelled
them from the islands. Still we cannot close our eyes to the fact that dangers from a
different quarter loom up which it much behooves Catholics to carefully consider. There
is a pressing necessity of being alive to those dangers, if worse evils than ever are not to
befall that large Catholic population of the Far East.

As might be expected, the Protestant missionary bodies have inaugurated a movement for
sending out missionaries of their own to the Archipelago. The Rev. John R. Hykes was
directed last September by the American Bible Society to proceed from Shanghai to
Manila, and investigate concerning the Philippines “as a field for Bible work.” He
submitted his report in a very short time, having made up his mind on the religious needs
of the people, the scandalous lives of the Friars, and the superstition of their benighted
parishioners with incredible rapidity. His sensational report duly appeared in the
American papers as the “Startling Revelations made by the Rev. John R. Hykes.” Sure of a
sympathetic audience, he laid on the colors thickly. The report need not occupy much of
our attention. Half of it is made up of ordinary information about the country that any one
could get for himself out of a good encyclopædia, and the other half is a rehash and
repetition of the charges already dealt with by us in previous chapters. One statement is,
however, worth noticing, as it clearly indicates the hopelessness of getting fair and
unbiassed treatment from the enemies of the Church. Mr. Hykes states that he was shocked
by the stories of immorality brought against the Friars. And, to make an impression, he
adds that the people who told him the stories said they were prepared to give names,
dates, and places in confirmation of what they said. Now, as already noted, names, dates,
and places were the very things asked for by the Friars in the Memorial to the Spanish
Government, as far back as last April; but their enemies, finding those details beyond their
power, have adopted the simpler process of repeating the calumnies to all who, like Mr.
Hykes, give them a ready and sympathetic hearing. Mr. Hykes, who never went beyond
Manila, presumes to judge, in a few days or weeks, of the spiritual condition of six
millions of Christians, and more than a thousand priests, scattered over the whole
Philippine Archipelago. (See Appendix VI.) We are afraid that too many of the type of Mr.
Hykes will be found among the new missionaries of the Philippines, coming in crowds,
with their wives and children, to spread, forsooth, the pure light of the Gospel, or rather to
engage in the more congenial task of vilifying the Catholic Church.

In an American Protestant missionary review, there is an article on the Philippines, by a

former agent of the British and Foreign Bible Society in that country. The article, needless
to say, is full of gross misrepresentations. It puts down the Christian population as seven
million Romanists; the writer denies the ordinary title of Christian to Catholics. This
emissary of the Bible Society writes: “The question now asked on all sides is—Are the
Philippines at last to be opened to missionary effort? Personally, I feel that a non-
sectarian, but strictly evangelical, mission, aiming at the Christianization of the whole
territory, is what would succeed best.” We may gather from the whole tone of this
Protestant missionary review what a low type of Protestantism it represents, a type largely
made up of self-presumption, ignorance, and fanaticism. Throughout the paper Catholics
are not once designated Christian. It speaks of the nineteenth century being the first century
of Christian missions, ignoring all the apostolic work of the Catholic Church. It says in
another place that there were no Christian Chinese at the beginning of this century,
ignoring the hundreds of thousands of Chinese who have known and loved Jesus Christ
since the days of St. Francis Xavier, numbers of whom sealed their faith with their blood.
It divides the population of the country into pagans, Romanists, and Christians—the latter,
of course, being Protestants of one denomination or another. To such absurd lengths does
religious rancor bring it, and all connected with it. Catholics give the title of Christian to
all who are baptized and profess belief in the Divinity of Jesus Christ. They would not
deny it even to the Rev. Mr. Hykes, bad as he is. But perhaps our new missionary friends
may be similar to those of whom Marshall speaks in his “Christian Missions,” who went
out to evangelize the South Sea Islands, and taught the people that baptism was merely a
ceremony not at all essential to salvation, thus showing their want of belief in baptismal
regeneration. At any rate, it will be news to the Filipinos to hear for the first time from
these enlightened men that they are not Christians.

That these Bible scatterers can and will do harm there is no doubt. Already they have
flooded Porto Rico with tracts and pamphlets, crammed with the usual vile charges
against the Catholic Church and her ministers. But it is equally certain that they will never
succeed in making the Philippines a Protestant country. It is a matter of notoriety that
Protestant missions are not overwhelmingly successful in any part of the world, and that
the funds are kept up in most instances by glowing and rosy-colored, if not altogether
accurate, reports, sent by the missionaries to their supporters at home. The review which I
have just quoted is forced to acknowledge that in Brazil, after thirty-five years’ work,
there are only eight thousand Protestants out of a population of sixteen millions. No less
than eight American Protestant Missionary Societies have been working there together,
well supplied with funds, as is always the case; and yet this is the result. In fact, eight
thousand may not be the result at all, for the missionaries have, very often, peculiar
methods in the science of statistics. In Mexico, too, they have been at work for many years
unmolested by the authorities, and yet they have but wretched results to show for
themselves at the present day. They make no impression either on the rich or the very
poor; any successes they have being amongst the impecunious middle classes, the children
of whom they teach gratuitously in their schools, and feed and clothe, and who carry away
with them from these schools, as the principal result of the religious training they receive,
a bitter hatred of the Church in which they were born. Just as in Mexico, so the Protestant
missionaries are sure to make proselytes among the same classes in the Philippines, from
which classes we know that the promoters of the rebellion have been mainly recruited; but
the better classes and also the poorer, whatever their shortcomings, have the old Faith and
are intensely devoted to the Catholic Church. These are no more likely than the people of
Mexico and Brazil to be led to accept the mutilated form of Christianity which will be
presented to them by Mr. Hykes and his friends; unless, indeed, there is such a deplorable
dearth of priests that they will be left without instruction and guidance.
 Harbor of Manila.

There are grave problems ahead which will tax the wisdom of the American Congress far
more than the military occupation of the country. John Foreman, who spent some years
there, and claims to be a Catholic, advocates (National Review, September, 1898) the
disendowment of the Church as a necessary financial measure which would bring a certain
amount of relief to the colonial treasury. With the exception of £3,000 a year paid to the
Archbishop of Manila, and £1,500 to each of the three other bishops, it is difficult to see
how the endowment comes in except as a measure adopted by every civilized State in
dealing with its uncivilized subject races; and unless the United States is prepared to
abandon the rôle of civilizer, she will be obliged to keep up the paltry endowment made
in the past by Spain for that purpose. The Church in the Philippines is, on the whole, self-
supporting. She is in the position that the Church in France, Spain, and Portugal was
before the Revolution, which, when it appeared successively in each country was
followed by a seizure of ecclesiastical property. The salaries paid to the clergy in those
countries are given as a compensation for past robberies. The writer has been at pains to
get at the truth in this matter and has put himself in communication with a Dominican Friar,
who lived for twenty-seven years in the Philippines, and now holds the distinguished
position of Rector of the Spanish-Dominican College, in Rome. From him the writer has
received the following information regarding the landed estates of the Friars, and the
salaries paid to them by the Spanish Government. As far as he knows all these estates
were acquired by purchase, and were not given by the Government; they hold the title-
deeds of them in their possession. He is not prepared to say whether on their first
introduction to the country, three centuries ago, the Government made them grants of land;
but we ourselves may infer from the early history of the Dominicans there, that whatever
they got was from the early Spanish colonists and the converted natives as free gifts. He
adds that in any case the introduction of agriculture is due to their exertions. The Friars
who ministered to the spiritual wants of the people may be placed in three categories.
There were, first of all, the ordinary parish priest, who lived among a settled Catholic
population. He subsisted on his benefice, which is not Government property, and was
endowed by no subsidy from the Government. Secondly, there was the missionary parish
priest, who lived in a parish where the majority are Catholics, but which also contained a
proportion of the heathen. He received some salary from the Government, but much less
than that given to the missionaries pure and simple, who lived in the midst of an entirely
heathen population. These latter, whose business it was to civilize as well as convert the
people to Christianity, and to teach them agriculture and the mechanical arts, were paid
according as the mission district was large or small. In the large districts they received
£200 annually, and £50 a year was paid to the native priests who acted as their assistants
and curates. In the smaller districts the sum allowed was £100. The Jesuits, too, on their
return to the Philippines some forty years ago, whence they had been banished in the
middle of the last century, got an annual subsidy as compensation for the lands they
formerly possessed, which had been confiscated by the Spanish Government of the day.
Something also was given towards the education of young Franciscan missionaries, and
they were allowed their passage out from Spain. The figures we have quoted are modest
enough, seen in the light of modern colonial salaries and expenditure. A continuance of the
very moderate subsidies allowed to the missionary Friars by the Spanish Government
would no more mean a union between Church and State than did the “contract” system
which was sanctioned by Congress up to 1894, for dealing with the education of the North
American Indians. According to this system, both Catholic and Protestant missionaries
were paid by Government according to the number of pupils who attended their schools,
and these schools, of course, were taught on strictly denominational lines. That system had
most beneficial results as long as it lasted, and was acceptable to the Indians. Its
abandonment in favor of the public-school system has resulted in the crying injustice of
compelling Catholic Indian fathers and mothers to send their children to certain schools to
which they have a conscientious objection.1

The school question is one of the gravest problems that the American Government will be
called upon to face when her troops have effectively occupied the Philippines. One of the
cries of the rebel leaders is for the secularization of the schools, and this cry, emanating
from infidel and secret society sources, will assuredly be echoed by the Protestant
ministers. It was these latter who, seeing their ministrations rejected by the Indians, raised
the agitation against the “contract” system.

It is a shame and a wonder to find professed ministers of religion joining in a cry with the
professed destroyers of religion. Secularization of education is always the first cry among
those who oppose the Catholic religion. According to the showing of Dr. Parsons, it was
attempted and sometimes successfully carried out in Colombia, Chili, and Ecuador, in
which latter country the bishops were banished because they protested against it. Yet in
spite of the anti-Christian spirit, exhibited in this and in many other ways, Dr. Parsons
makes it clear that the masonic lodges in Peru actually receive aid out of the funds
supplied to Christianize (according to sectarian ideas) the natives by the Protestant
American public.

The notorious ex-Indian commissioner Morgan, now a Baptist prophet, has already
sounded a characteristically aggressive note on this point, and is conjuring the
Government to drive the Catholic religion out of all the schools in Cuba, a movement
already accomplished in the eastern part of the island. Morgan says: “Here is a field
opened for the missionary spirit, such as the young people of our country have never yet
seen. To carry thither and plant the seeds of civilization, and to do this in the joyful
confidence that all official assistance is assured to them, will doubtlessly fill with
enthusiasm hundreds of ambitious young teachers.” We may wonder what Morgan means
by “official assistance” given for the spreading of Protestantism among a Catholic people,
when, according to theory, the American Constitution does not support one form of
religion over another. But theory is one thing and practice is another; and though in theory
Church and State are entirely separate, the theory has not, in the past, hindered the United
States from giving substantial assistance to Protestantism. This is how the case stands for
America. Rightly or wrongly she has taken over an enormous Catholic population in the
East. If she is not able to make any concession on the score of religion, or to stretch a
point to meet the wishes of the people and govern them according to their ideas, then it is
only consonant with reason and justice that her Constitution, which never contemplated
colonial empire, will have to be modified to meet the exigencies of a situation unimagined
by its original founders and makers. But, in reality, is any modification of the Constitution
necessary in order that religious instruction may take place in the schools of the
Archipelago? In Ireland there is no State Church, and yet the National School System is so
arranged that religious instruction can be given for half an hour every day of the week. The
system is in theory undenominational, but in practice denominational.

An early solution of the difficulty might be some such procedure as the following. Let the
parish priests be managers of the schools, and have a voice in the appointment of properly
certified masters and mistresses, and let a fixed time be devoted to religious instruction
every day. If the Protestants succeed in attracting converts, and are able to gather a
sufficient number of children in any place to form a school, they can receive the same
treatment as regards payment and control of religious instruction. Thus religious
dissension would be reduced to the minimum. Secularization of education would tend to
drive every form of religion out of the people, for Protestantism could not hope to make
headway for a long time in the Philippines; as, to say the least, it would take some years
for the ministers to get a sufficient knowledge of the various languages in use, and
establish themselves in face of the opposition they are sure to meet with. It would also put
all the Friars in opposition to the Government, while fair treatment would make them its
best friends, and urge them to keep the people as loyal to the American Constitution as
they kept them to the Spanish Crown for three centuries.
If, then, the Government, after due inquiry, find that the vast majority of the people do not
join in the cry for secularization, but desire to have the Catholic religion taught in the
schools which their children attend, it would be nothing short of religious persecution to
introduce the public schools system of the States into the Philippines. It is ever to be borne
in mind that the new American possession in the Far East is one in which the great bulk of
the people are practical Catholics who attend to all their religious duties.

To counteract the baleful influence of the Protestant missionary and Bible societies, it will
be necessary for the Catholic Church in America to be alive to the new and grave
responsibilities thus thrown upon her by the hand of Providence, and to send out English-
speaking priests at once to the Philippines, to make up for the great dearth of priests
caused by the excesses of the rebels. Before the rebellion they numbered between one and
two thousand, a small number in comparison with the Catholic population. Fifty have been
killed outright; many others have died of the hardships undergone in captivity; while
several hundreds have left the country, apparently with no intention of returning. Every
year till last year, bands of enthusiastic young missionaries used to go out from the
colleges in Spain to fill up the gaps in the ranks of the Friars, caused by sickness and
death. That perennial source of life and strength can no longer be relied upon under the
new conditions. The energies of the Spanish Friars will most likely be expended in Spain
itself, where the lack of priests is still severely felt, and in developing their great and
flourishing missions in China, Japan, Tonquin, and Formosa.

It is a matter of astonishment that the Church in the United States has up to the present no
organization for supplying foreign mission. Perhaps the struggle to keep abreast in
numbers with the growing Catholic population has absorbed all her energies. But now, for
the first time in her history, she must cast her eyes beyond her boundaries, and send speedy
help to the millions of children who have been given to her keeping, and whose voice may
be heard from across the wide ocean, calling to her for spiritual help and ministration. Let
her gaze steadily and thoughtfully on the vast harvest of souls given unto her. She shall
reap where others have sown and planted. Let her gird herself to the work, and go forth
and gather with joy the good wheat that others—the poor Spanish missionaries—have
sown in tears and cultivated through much tribulation.

A fact of interest in connection with the aspect of our subject under consideration is the
challenge sent to Archbishop Ireland by an American Presbyterian of authority in his sect.
He tells the Archbishop in effect that if the Catholic Church in the United States will
undertake the missionary equipment of the Philippines, his sect will gladly withdraw from
the field, and devote their efforts to Africa instead. Without attaching any more importance
to this declaration than it deserves, especially as it is founded on the false assumption that
one Gospel is preached by Catholic priests in Washington and another in Manila, we may,
nevertheless, infer from it that these men believe they would have a much easier task in
dealing with the Spanish missionaries than with Catholic missionaries from the States.
Without saying anything in disparagement of the learning of a body of men which has
produced a Gonzalez, one of the greatest philosophers of the century, we believe that
American priests, being more in touch with modern times and more open to modern ideas,
could give them valuable lessons in the conflict between the Church and the world, as it is
carried on in our own days. It is not by profound theological arguments that we can deal
with men who can neither understand nor appreciate them. Priests are wanted for the
Philippines who can make their voices heard beyond its boundaries; who can mould
public opinion by means of the daily Press; who can keep in touch with the politics and
legislation of the United States; and can bring public opinion there to bear on unjust and
unfair treatment, if anything of the kind is attempted against the Catholics of that
unfortunate Archipelago.

A street in Manila.

1 A recent report in the daily papers (April, 1899), that one or another of the most civilized Indian tribes, of which
remnants remain, is determined upon emigration from the United States to Mexico, because of the fairer treatment they
have reason to look for there, will certainly not surprise those who are familiar with the broken promises and rescinded
obligations that have marked the Government’s dealing with the Red man and his Catholic educators and missioners.
Postscript.
Since these chapters were prepared for the press there has come to hand from the ex-
missionary, referred to in the previous pages more than once, additional and valuable
information.1 Though it embraces various matters, we think it better to give it altogether,
as it possesses a peculiar authority and interest of its own, coming as it does from a Friar
who lived in the Philippines for twenty-seven years, and who knew the country well in its
normal and peaceful state, long before the Freemasons had wrought havoc in the relations
between the priests and the people.

1. Those who were principally engaged in writing against the Friars for the past few
years, and injuring their prestige at home, were the civil functionaries and military
officers, who for the most part lived at Manila and knew next to nothing about them and
their doings. These men were biased by anti-religious ideas implanted in them by an
irreligious education. It is easy to estimate the effect of an enormous correspondence of
this kind, leaving Manila every fortnight, and passing into the hands of politicians in the
mother-country, especially as there was nothing to counteract its influence on the part of
the Friars, who did their work quietly and earnestly, and had very little correspondence
with Spain at all.

2. The parish priests were ex-officio inspectors of the primary schools, but, having no
voice in the appointment of masters and mistresses, and finding unsuitable persons thrust
on them, were forced in many cases to retire from the schools in disgust, and limit their
connection with them as much as possible.

3. The parish priests were also ex-officio presidents of certain municipal committees, and
were supposed to help in the appointment of justices of the peace and petty governors, by
sending in reports of the qualifications or otherwise of the nominees. The system worked
well for a long time. But, latterly, owing to the new spirit in Manila, where the persons in
office seemed leagued against the Friars, these privileged communications invariably
leaked out; and if the parish priest, as in duty bound, laid bare defects and deficiencies the
first to hear of it would be the person of whom they were told. This was naturally a
constant source of irritation and loss of prestige. The officials seemed to take a delight in
lowering the parish priest in the eyes of the better class of natives. If the parish priest
ventured to advise the governors as to what was best to be done in the interests of the
communes, especially with regard to the secret societies, the governors would laugh, call
him a visionary—an innocent man. No wonder, then, that the parish priests gradually
began to retire within themselves, and leave growing evils unchecked, when they saw all
their endeavor balked by the powerful opposition of the civil and military governors. This
untoward state of things left the rebels free to mature and carry out their plans.

4. Here is an instance of how badly this state of things reacted on the country. The
introduction of the new Penal Code was a great blunder of the Government. It was
unnecessary; the natives were all opposed to it, and the strength and extent of that
opposition was well known to the Friars who lived in the midst of the people. Under
normal conditions they would have advised the repeal of the Code, and their advice
would have been taken. But they were forced to remain silent while the Government in its
folly was putting the obnoxious Code in force. If they had warned the Government, instead
of getting the respectful hearing to which they were entitled, by their long experience and
their intimate knowledge of the people, they would simply have been dubbed reactionists.

5. How foolish it was of the Government to alienate the most loyal Spaniards in the whole
Archipelago, the most distinctively Spanish element,—the Friars. They were almost ultra-
loyal, and did their best to inspire feelings of loyalty in the breasts of the natives. They
were powerful bodies with a strong bond of cohesion, having large interests in the
country. They had glorious traditions to look back upon and keep them up to the ideal they
had formed of their mission martyrs, a history to remember with pride; and all around
them a Christian people, the fruit of their apostolic toil and that of their predecessors. The
officials, on the other hand, were mere birds of passage, who took no real interest in the
country. It was a case of every one for himself; every official keeping his eye on Spain
with a view to an early return, while he went through his appointed work. It is remarkable
too that in the Philippines there is no class of old rich Spanish families such as are to be
found in other colonies; the families are all of yesterday—the riches in the hands of
Chinese merchants, and the foreign trade in the hands of the English and Germans.

6. It used to be said that the Friars wished to have a hand in everything. The three
important departments of justice, finance, and military affairs were outside their province
altogether, and these as purely secular matters they never touched. The complaint arose
from their being ever ready to preach against sedition and disloyalty, and to use their
moral influence publicly and privately for that purpose. But the Friars for the sake of the
people did take part in other than purely spiritual concerns, and the activity of mind it
engendered was personally a great help and relief to them. The general rule is that young
priests, coming over for the first time, suffer a great deal from that ennui to which all
classes of Europeans are subject to in the Archipelago. Gradually the sense of the sublime
duties to which they have vowed themselves, and the example of the older brethren work a
wonderful change in them for the better. They then begin to throw themselves with ardor
into their work, and identifying themselves with the people among whom their
ministrations lie, take a great interest even in their temporal affairs, and are glad to help
them over their difficulties, especially those arising between them and the governors. Any
friction between the governors and the Friars has generally arisen from the latter being
prompt to defend the rights of the natives.

7. It is untrue to say that the Friars did not wish to spread the Spanish language. What they
were opposed to was the folly of trying to teach the Christian doctrine and some other
elementary knowledge in a language not understood by the people. In this matter they gave
their candid opinion to the Government that it was impossible to teach Spanish in out-of-
the-way rural schools. But in towns they taught in Spanish, and taught the Spanish language
and literature. They used to induce parents to send their children to Manila for the purpose
of learning Spanish.

8. Regarding their opposition to the rebellion from the pulpit, in private conversation, and
by means of the press, they fought the secret societies, its principal cause, and the
propagation of evil and irreligious literature. They pointed out these evils on several
occasions since 1887 to the governors, and were told in reply that these societies were of
no importance, that they had nothing to do with the rebellion, and, in fact, that the
preparations of the rebels were of no serious consequence. General Weyler was the only
governor who gave them a hearing. With that solitary exception the official element
remained incredulous. The secret society of the “Katipunan,” the compact of blood, and
the enrolment of levies, were all discovered by the Prior of Guadalupe, who sent a report
of it to General Blanco three months before the rising took place. Padre Mariane Gol
exposed the intentions of the lodges a long time before Aug. 19, 1898, and also gave
notice of concealed deposits of arms, and a detailed account of what took place at Manila
on the arrival of the Japanese ship Konga.
 Church and convent at Mahaijay.

1 It is with real satisfaction that, at the last moment, we find ourselves permitted to mention the name of this venerable
and experienced man—the Very Rev. Padre Gallego, O.P., Convento della SS. Trinità, Rome; and we can but express the
regret that the worth of this noble disciple of Christ is not known of in the outside world as it is among his confrères; then,
indeed, his word would have the authority it deserves among all who love religion, and struggle for the uplifting of
humanity.
Appendix I.
A Short Account of Missions in China,
conducted by the Dominican Friars of
the Philippines.1
Missionaries supplied by the religions Orders in the Philippines to the large
fields of labor in China and Japan are not confined to the Dominicans, but as
we have not details at hand regarding the other Orders, we present to our
readers part of the work done by the Dominicans, which will serve as a
specimen of the rest.

The Dominicans have charge since 1631 of the Vicariate Apostolic of Fo-
Kien, which at present contains 20,000,000 inhabitants. The Most Rev. Dr.
Salvator Masot, O.P., is the present Vicar-apostolic, and working under him
are eighteen Spanish Dominicans, one native Dominican, and twelve secular
native priests. The vicariate is divided into twenty-two districts, each under
the care of a priest, and the Christian population numbers 35,000. The
districts are subdivided into what are called Christianities, or places of
meeting where prayer is said, and the Christian doctrine taught. About fifty of
them are provided with an oratory or chapel where Mass is said, and the
sacraments administered; and they have also attached to them thirty schools
for boys and eight for girls. There is also under the care of the Dominicans a
seminary for the education of young native students who show a vocation for
the priesthood.

In 1883 part of the vicariate was cut off and formed into the Vicariate
Apostolic of Amoy, which also was made to embrace the Island of Formosa.
The most Rev. Dr. Ignatius Ibanez is Vicar-apostolic, and under his direction
are working fourteen Spanish Dominicans, one native Dominican. The
vicariate is divided into fourteen districts, half of which are in Formosa.
They have forty chapels or oratories, twenty schools for boys and girls, and a
seminary in the town of Ta-Kow in Formosa.
A few words about the Sisters of the Third Order of St. Dominic, who are
engaged on the work of the Holy Infancy in both vicariates, will be
interesting. There are fifteen European sisters in all, besides eight native
women. They have five orphanages in which are housed 200 female orphans
abandoned by their unnatural parents in infancy, and kept by the Sisters till
they can marry them into Christian families. Besides these they have rescued
since 1891, 800 others whom they place under the care of Christian nurses,
and look after till they can settle them in life.

The only fact we can give of the Vicariate of Central Tonquin, also under the
care of the Philippine Dominicans, is that in 1890 alone 2,100 natives were
converted and baptized.

1 From the Analecta Ordinis Prædicatorum.

Appendix II.
Extracts relating to the Friars, from
the Official Correspondence of
Generals Weyler and Moriones.

General Weyler.

“The mission of the Religious Orders is not over, as is pretended by some

who, having fallen foul of them, seek to abolish them altogether, or at least to
restrict and limit their influence. It is this spirit of jealousy that has dictated
many of the so-called reforms, which we have seen enforced of late years.

“But these people seem to forget that we have established our authority in
Luzon and the Visayas by the exercise of moral influence alone, backed up by
the parish priest, for as none has such intimate and friendly relations with the
people as the priest, so no one knows better than he what the people think,
nor is any one better able to give them wise advice, to restrain them, and
influence them for good. He alone can make Spaniards of them. By his office
and position he is best fitted to make things easy for our minor officials in
their different charges and districts.

“Remove the control of Religion, and what do you do? You remove the
Spanish element, forgetful of the fact that we have to depend on a native army
whose dialect we do not understand, and who, in turn, understand not ours;
that we have amongst us but a very limited number of Spanish soldiers—this
is really how we are situated. I firmly believe that the day that witnesses the
abolition of the Religious Orders, or even the serious restriction of their
influence, will also witness the loss of Cuba and Puerto Rico. Even were we
to fill the ranks of the army entirely with Spanish recruits, we should not
improve matters, for then there would be an immense increase to the
expenditure, whereas at present the Orders cost us next to nothing. All the
religious live in common after the manner of a corporation; so that whatever
the priest receives, goes to the support of all, and to maintain their colleges
and seminaries in Spain. Far, then, from being an inconvenience in the
Philippines, religious zeal is our surest support, and should be by every
means promoted and encouraged.

“The natives are naturally simple and credulous, and of little discernment;
and so are prone to superstition and idolatry, and can be easily imposed upon
by any quick-witted impostor who is able to relate strange and wonderful
stories. To prevent them being drawn away, the light of the true religion is
absolutely necessary.

“In Luzon and the Visayas the Government should make religion a support on
which to lean, and should regard the existence of the Religious Orders as a
most effective means of spreading and diffusing civilization, and of
consolidating vast multitudes of men of different and widely separated races.
It is only by gaining the good-will of these masses we can hope to rule them
and draw them to ourselves. In the establishing of new outposts and ranches,
we must count on the influence of the missionary. It is with this end in view
that I have established certain missions, which will, I hope, in a few years
give the most satisfactory results. I hope that they will be even the indirect
means of increasing the revenues and income of the State, although the new
Christians are to be free of all taxes for the next ten years. In a word, I know
of no better means of civilizing the natives than the missionary post.

“It is clear that as society progresses in civilization and enlightenment, the

less we are dependent on the influence of the priest; for as civilization
advances organization becomes more perfect. What I deduce from this is that
the reforms necessary in these islands should be carried out in logical
succession, and in proportion to the state of civilization in each province.

“To aid us in accomplishing this good work, it is necessary that we should

multiply the means for the diffusion of learning, for teaching the Spanish
language, encourage and stimulate labor and industry, banish as far as
possible card-playing and gambling, and extinguish certain instincts and
customs peculiar to half-civilized men.

“These are my aims, and to their realization I have devoted myself with
earnestness, taking for my programme—if I might so express it—the
advancement and strengthening of the civil authority, the spreading of
civilization and learning, so that the country may enjoy at no distant date the
blessings that have come to other countries through the same means.

“But this, in my opinion, can only be achieved through the Religious Orders.
For let the Government bear in mind that those who deny this are filibusters,
who desire the absolute independence of the country, and who knew well that
their greatest obstacle is to be found in those holy men who have the charge
of souls in the Philippines.”

General Moriones.
“Though I desire to enforce the laws with strictness, yet I am at the same time
most anxious to safeguard the moral and material interests of the people over
whom I rule. It has ever been my constant study to maintain on the one hand
all the royal prerogatives in their entire amplitude and vigor; and on the other
to make every concession consistent with these prerogatives, which justice
and reason demand, and thus preserve the close relations which should exist
between the religious and political powers. I regard this relation and
harmony between these two powers as the very foundation of social order—
in this country particularly, where religion and patriotism are interwoven in
all its past history, and pre-existing institutions, and where they must bring
about its future peace and prosperity.

“My efforts in this direction have, I rejoice to say, been greatly strengthened
by the loyal and unconditional assistance given to my authority by all the
Religious Orders of the country. These bodies, to the glory of Spain be it
recorded, are composed of excellent and truly devoted men; men who
without one hope of earthly reward, without a hope of ever again treading
their native land, sacrifice with generous enthusiasm their lives, social
surroundings, personal friendships, nay, even, in some places, their daily
bread, to spread the light of the Gospel, and promote the interests of Spain.

“They spend themselves in their efforts to instil the love of faith and
fatherland into the simple minds of the innocent inhabitants of these distant
lands, and thus lay the best and surest foundations of a true civilization.

“Aided in this manner it has been comparatively easy for me to effect many
of the necessary reforms in different parts of this Province; to establish useful
institutions, and to aid the Supreme Government by founding many
benevolent societies, such as the Monte de Pietâ and the Savings Bank,
which I hope will put an end to the extortions of greedy speculators. Many
villages have submitted to us in the provinces of North Luzon without our
having had to employ force to any extent worth speaking of. This happy result
has been brought about almost entirely by the good offices of the Religious
Orders,—I mean by their preaching, their advice, the holy example of their
lives, their tact, self-denial, and sacrifices.

“They are men who deserve our highest esteem, and our lasting gratitude.”...
Appendix III.
The Work of Freemasonry in South
and Central America.
A writer in the San Francisco Monitor has made a very intelligible and
instructive abstract of an article recently written by Rev. Reuben Parsons,
D.D., on “Freemasonry in Latin America.” This is a subject upon which there
is much popular misapprehension, and Dr. Parsons throws a strong light upon
it. His language is, all in all, moderate; and his tone, temperate. He makes no
vicious attack upon the Order, and all his assertions are substantiated by
quotations from Masonic organs or unprejudiced sources. He exposes the
systematic attacks which the lodges have made upon religion; the
persecutions to which they have subjected not only the bishops but the laity;
the war they have waged against religious education. And he proves all his
charges from the mouths of the Masons themselves.

Freemasonry in the United States and Freemasonry in Catholic countries are

two distinct institutions. Freemasonry among us is a benevolent society with
a creed and a ritual. It does not exhibit any symptoms of bigotry. But in
France, Spain, and Italy a main purpose seems to be opposition to the
Church. In France the Masonic clique which runs the government has kept the
Church in bondage; in Italy Masonry was most active in the movement which
overthrew the temporal power of the Pope. In Latin America, as Dr. Parsons
shows, it has started revolutions, assassinated the leaders of the people,
exiled the clergy, and persecuted the Church. Fortunately, however, its
domination has been short-lived in most of the South American republics,
owing to the universal disgust which its violent measures excited. Brazil was
the scene of the most important fight that Freemasonry waged against the
Church in South America. For many years the society had been establishing
itself in that country, but it was only during the reign of Don Pedro II. (1831–
1889) that an open rupture occurred. There were two Grand Lodges in Brazil
—one monarchial and the other revolutionary. In 1872 the president of the
former had some measures passed in Parliament which were highly pleasing
to his followers. A banquet was tendered to him, and a feature of the affair
was an address by a priest. The priest was suspended by his bishop, and, at
once, the Masons were on the warpath. Both lodges sank their differences,
and united in their opposition to what they were pleased to call an
infringement of their liberty. Their first act of defiance was the announcement
of a Mass to be celebrated for one of their brethren who had died in
rebellion against the Church. Next day they turned their attention to the
provinces and attempted to have a Mass of thanksgiving celebrated in
commemoration of the foundation of the lodge at Olinda. The bishop
immediately warned his priests against this defiance of spiritual authority.
The Masons retorted by charging that some priests were members of that
sect, and that the parish confraternities were honeycombed with masonry. It
was found that some of the confraternities attached to the churches were
controlled by the Masons. The bishop forbade the infected societies to hold
services in their chapels. Those thus censured, disregarded the prohibition,
and even went so far in their defiance as to appear in church in full regalia.
When holy communion was refused them “in their Masonic capacity,” they
boldly took possession of the keys of the tabernacle. The priests were thus
forced to go to the president of the local Masonic confraternity whenever
they were called upon to administer the holy viaticum to the dying, and ask
from him the necessary keys.

Of course such a condition could not long continue. The Masons appealed to
the minister of ecclesiastical affairs, who was himself in high standing in the
Order. He decided that the bishops should withdraw their interdict against
the confraternities. Just at this time, the bishop of Olinda received a papal
brief approving of his action. The brief was published by the prelate, who
was thereupon arrested and charged with the terrible crime of promulgating
an ecclesiastical mandate without permission of the Emperor. In every
country where the Church is free, the ecclesiastical authorities enjoy the right
of ruling and directing their flock in spiritual matters. It would seem,
according to the Masonic idea and the weak-minded Don Pedro, that the
bishop should not take any action without consulting the temporal rulers.

The intrepid prelate was sentenced to four years in the penitentiary. When his
case was disposed of, the bishop of Para was arrested and received the same
sentence, besides being subjected to insults worse than the penitentiary could
offer. One of the condemned confraternities celebrated its feast in 1877 with
a grand procession, the most prominent feature of which was a series of
indecent pictures. The bishop of the diocese where the outrage occurred felt
it his duty to speak out against the sacrilegious act. He prohibited the
shameless society from using its chapel, but after two years of legal
proceedings the case was decided against him. On the night of the decision,
the Masons celebrated their victory by hooting the prelate and illuminating
their headquarters. These excesses disgusted the Catholics of Brazil, and
popular indignation forced the Masons to be more prudent and to confine
themselves to secret intrigues. As outlined in the address of their Grand
Master, their policy should be to obtain control of the schools, to introduce a
bill which would make marriage merely a civil contract, and to secularize
the cemeteries. In 1880, however, the sect met with reverses, and the new
government was not under Masonic influences. Many of the deluded
members abjured their errors, and the Church in Brazil has enjoyed
comparative freedom since that time.

Freemasonry makes loud boasts of enlightenment and independence, but it

hounded to death the most enlightened and liberty-loving patriot that South
America has ever produced—Simon Bolivar, the Liberator. He studied law
in Madrid, and on his return home joined the patriots who revolted against
Spain. He freed Venezuela from Spanish rule, and was elected first President
of the Republic of Colombia. But while he was fighting for the freedom of
Peru, the Masonic clique was plotting against religious freedom in
Colombia. In 1821 the Colombian Congress, which was controlled by the
Masons, passed many laws directed against the Church. The Catholic
religion was disestablished, right of censorship over books was vested in the
Government alone, the right of nominating bishops, which had been exercised
by the defunct Spanish power, was claimed, and a new plan of studies was
imposed on the ecclesiastical seminaries. Some of these regulations may
appear innocent, but the way in which they were carried out evidenced the
animus of their authors. The first books passed and approved for publication
by the government censor were the works of Voltaire and other French
atheists, and many immoral pamphlets. One of the text-books prescribed for
the universities was an atheistic work by the English materialist Bentham.
When an eminent professor protested against this, he was thrown into prison.
Such violation of religious liberty could not occur in the United States. And
yet these enlightened and tolerant Masons inflicted them on a Catholic nation.
Other outrages on liberty followed. Crime stalked abroad in the new
republic; unoffending citizens were cast into prison or beheaded on the
trumped-up charge of treason. The people soon tired of the new tyranny and
clamored for Bolivar to return and liberate them once again.

Bolivar returned and restored order and peace to the distracted country. He
was hated by the lodges, and his death was decreed. On Sept. 25, 1828, a
band of assassins entered his house, but fortunately Bolivar escaped by a
secret passage. That the crime had been plotted by the Masons is evident
from the decree which the President issued soon afterwards: “Considering
that secret societies have the planning of political revolutions for their
principal object, and that their baneful character is sufficiently manifested by
the mystery with which they surround themselves, I order the suppression of
all such societies, and the closing of their lodges.” He re-established
religious education in the schools and universities, believing that nothing but
religion could counteract the disorders and crimes which disgraced his
beloved country. His enemies triumphed at the elections of 1830, and Bolivar
decided to resign office. His final address to Congress is memorable. “And
now,” he wrote, “let my last official act be to recommend Congress to protect
continually our holy religion, the fruitful source of the blessing of Heaven;
and to entreat Congress to restore its sacred and unprescriptible rights to
public instruction, which has been made a cancer for Colombia. Fellow-
citizens, I must say, with the blush of shame on my brow, that while we have
won our independence, it has been won at the expense of every other
blessing. For twenty years I have served you as soldier and as magistrate.
During that long period we have freed our country, procured liberty for three
republics, repressed many civil wars, and four times I have resigned to the
people the supreme power which they confided to me. To-day I fear that I
may be an obstacle to your happiness, and therefore I resign for the last time
the magistracy with which you have honored me. The most unworthy
suspicions have been expressed in my regard, and I have been unable to
defend myself. A crown has been offered to me frequently by men who are
now ambitious of supreme power, but I always refused that crown with the
indignation of a sincere republican.”

The republic which he established was dismembered; his dearest friend was
assassinated, and his own picture was burned in effigy. He was besought to
return and once more guide the destinies of the country, but he replied: “I
cannot assume an authority with which another is invested.” He died in his
forty-eighth year, of a broken heart. Such was the treatment which the
Washington of South America received from Freemasons.

Contrasting the lives of two presidents of Ecuador—Moreno, the martyr, and

Alfaro—in a previous article, we touched on the crimes of Freemasonry in
that country. After the assassination of Moreno, the lodges decided not to
inaugurate a very radical policy. They were afraid of a popular outburst. But
in 1877 a drunken soldier, named Vintimilla, was proclaimed dictator, and
then the cloven hoof appeared. The usual decree for the secularization of
education was promulgated and the Catholic bishops protested. The bishops
were banished for their action, and the Archbishop of Quito, Monsignor
Chica, died under very suspicious circumstances. A post-mortem
examination revealed twelve grains of strychnine in his stomach, but his
poisoners were never brought to justice. This was followed by a decree
ordering all the pastors to celebrate requiem masses for the souls “of all the
martyrs of holy Liberalism who had fallen since March, 1869.” That was the
date of an insurrection against the saintly Moreno. The priests refused to
celebrate Mass for these revolutionists, and the people sided with them. The
drunken dictator was defeated. Soon afterwards he was driven from office
and Ecuador was comparatively peaceful until Alfaro, a cruel and ignorant
soldier, seized the Government. His term has been marked by the murder and
exile of priests and bishops.

In Chili, the most Catholic of all South American countries, English and
German Masons made many futile attempts to secularize all the institutions,
and to degrade marriage into a merely civil contract. The Monde
Maconnique published the programme which had been prepared by the
“Grand Lodge of Chili”; and another organ of the lodges informs us that “in
Chili it is really the English and German lodges that do the work.” It is
gratifying to learn that all their plots came to naught, and that Chili remains a
Catholic and contented country.

In Peru the lodges are supported in a manner from the “missionary funds,”
which Protestants of this country contribute for the spread of the Gospel
among these “benighted Papists.” The preachers who are sent out to Catholic
countries are too often ignorant bigots. A common mode of procedure on
their part is to attack and calumniate Catholics, and they are ready to join
with Masonry, or any other anti-Catholic society, in their fight against the
Church. So far, however, they have failed to stir up an anti-Catholic
movement in Peru.

Little need be added about Mexico, where the people are, for the most part,
devoutly Catholic, while the politicians are Masonic. As a consequence the
Church has been despoiled of her property and visited with persecution. The
trouble with the people of these countries is that they allow themselves to be
ruled by politicians. The same may be said of the United States, with a
difference, however: there, politicians are allowed to misappropriate funds
and to plunder tax-payers; in Mexico and South America the Catholics,
somehow or other, permit themselves to be persecuted by the Masonic
politicians.
Appendix IV.
Interview with Augustinian Friars.
(From the Catholic Standard and Times, Philadelphia, Penn.)

Ten Spanish priests, driven from the mission of the Philippines by the
insurrectionary movement, arrived in San Francisco on the 5th of January by
the Pacific Mail steamer Doric. They only remained a few days in
California, as their destination was New Granada, to which they sailed the
following week. A call on them while stopping at the Occidental Hotel
obtained much interesting information about the disposition of the natives
towards the clergy in the Philippine group. All ten had been employed as
parish priests in country districts, where the population is almost wholly of
native stock, without the admixture of Chinese blood which is prevalent in
Manila. Two came from Luzon, where the Tagals are predominant; two more
from Zebu, and six from Panay. In these last islands the population is of the
Visaya race. Familiarity with the native language is required from every
missionary before he is sent out of the seminary in Manila after his arrival in
the Archipelago.

During their passage the exiled priests, by direction of their superiors, all
wore the ordinary secular dress, and looked like a delegation of intelligent
business men from some country district in the United States. In manner they
were courteous and very intelligent; but they were somewhat shy of talking
much in a strange land. After some time this shyness wore off, and cordial
relations were established between the exiles and your correspondent. None
of the former spoke English, though the president, Father Diaz, read it
readily, and translated offhand articles in the San Francisco papers to his
brethren. They were not familiar with the system of interviewing as practised
in California, and asked that any questions to which their answers were
desired should be put to them in Spanish and in writing. Later they conversed
freely on subjects connected with their missions, though they declined to
express themselves on political questions. They evidently regarded
Aguinaldo as not a very remarkable personage, and the calmness with which
they spoke of their own experiences was very remarkable.

The statement that the Friars possessed large estates in the country was
declared by them to be a pure lie. The individual members possess nothing,
and the only property held by the Orders is attached to hospitals or colleges.
The missionaries are all Europeans, though there are many natives among the
secular clergy. The Augustinians, Franciscans, Dominicans, and Capuchins
have the right of presentation to certain parishes which were founded among
the barbarous natives in older times. Each Order has a seminary in Europe
specially devoted to training such of its members as have suitable vocations
for the Philippine mission. After completing their studies, and receiving holy
orders, the young priests are sent to the seminaries in the Philippines to
perfect themselves in the native languages, and get familiar with the habits of
the country. There are three principal languages spoken in the group,—Tagal,
Visaya, and Pampanginano. No priest is sent on mission work until he is
thoroughly acquainted with whichever of these he is destined to use in his
ministry. These Philippine languages have, it must be remembered, books and
literature, and are not mere dialects suitable to all. In answer to a question
whether as missionaries they could accumulate private funds, Father Alvarez
emphatically said no. “We are Friars and have taken a solemn vow of
poverty,” he stated, “and it a simple falsehood to assert, as some have done,
that any Philippine Friar possesses a rood of land or a peso that he can call
his own, except temporarily and by permission of his superiors.” A couple of
other questions brought out a clearly worded account of the relations of the
Friars in the Philippines to Church and State. Some of the facts will be new
to American readers.

The Catholic Church in the Archipelago is organized on the same basis as in

other parts of the world, but the number of clergy is much less in proportion
to the population than in any other Catholic country. There is one archbishop
and four bishops for a population of over seven millions. The dioceses are
divided into parishes, as in Spain or America, and the priests of each parish
are subject to the bishop’s authority in the same manner. The only peculiarity,
in a church point, is that more than three-quarters of the parishes are served
by members of the different Religious Orders—Augustinians, Dominicans,
Franciscans, and Jesuits. Each Order has the right of presenting the names of
suitable priests for the districts in its charge to the bishop, who appoints
them, if satisfactory to his own judgment, after which the Augustinian or
Franciscan occupies the ordinary position of a parish priest—subject,
however, to removal by his own superior. In practice this is rare, and the
relations between the bishops and the Orders have been uniformly
satisfactory.

The whole number of Augustinians in the islands in 1896 was three hundred
and twenty-seven, and the Catholic population which this number supplied
was two millions three hundred thousand, or about one priest to every seven
thousand Catholics. It certainly is not a great number, and does not justify the
common ideas of hordes of idle Friars. In districts of over ten thousand two
or more Friars are stationed, but the great majority have only one, with a
native assistant priest or deacon in some cases. The church property is
simply the church and priest’s house, with a garden attached. The revenue is
an allowance from the government, which varies from five hundred to eight
hundred silver dollars a year, or somewhat less than ten cents a head for the
population at large. That the three hundred Friars can lead idle lives is
hardly compatible with the number of baptisms and marriages recorded
within a year. There were a hundred and fifteen thousand baptisms, sixteen
thousand marriages, and fifty-one thousand interments as the work of 1896
for the three hundred Friars.

Of the condition of the people in the islands Father Alvarez thought it

compared fairly well with the rural population of his native Spain or other
European countries. The bulk of the natives own and cultivate their own
lands. There are schools for boys and girls in every parish, and the great
majority can read and write. Of the religious spirit of the country people and
their respect for the missionaries he spoke very favorably. The movement
which drove them out was political, not religious. Father Alvarez attributed
the chief share in it to the mestizos of Chinese and Philippine origin, who
form the greater part of the population of Manila and the larger towns. Like
the Tagals and the Visayas, these mestizos are Christians, but they possess the
fondness for secret societies of their Chinese fathers. A certain number of the
younger natives who have engaged in office seeking or business joined in the
movement, to which the bulk of the country population is wholly indifferent.

The occupation of Cavite by Dewey and the destruction of the Spanish fleet
was followed by the withdrawal of the Spanish soldiers from the remoter
islands, where they had been almost the only police force. Popular
disturbances followed in many places, and Aguinaldo at Cavite, through the
mestizo agents, quickly put himself in touch with the local agitators. The
latter had no definite purpose except to secure personal advancement in the
change of government, and when Aguinaldo declared Spaniards the enemies
of the Philippines, attacks were made on the isolated Spanish priests.
Several were imprisoned, some were released by their parishioners, and
others remained in the hands of the new insurgent soldiery. The heads of the
Order directed a temporary retirement, and most of the priests did so, but
returned again after some time. With the progress of Aguinaldo’s party more
violent measures were adopted towards the Spanish priests. The jails were
opened and criminals had free scope through the islands. In many places
liquor was freely distributed by the leaders of the insurgents, and massacres
and robberies were committed with impunity. In Illocos, in Luzon, the bishop
and all the students of the seminary and all the Spanish priests were arrested
and treated with savage brutality. More than fifty priests were murdered in
different places, and over four hundred thrown into prison and subjected to
all the brutalities that the fierce Malay spirit could suggest. The heads of the
Orders in Manila finally gave the word, and the missionaries who were able
to escape made their way to the different places which were protected by
Spanish garrisons, or to Manila itself. In Manila, after its capture, it was
impossible for the Orders to maintain long the number of fugitive priests thus
driven from their homes. Their funds are limited, and, on consultation with
the generals in Rome, it was decided to find employment for the exiles in
other lands as far as possible. In South America such employment has been
offered to a number of Augustinians.
Appendix V.
Letter from a Friar in the Power of the
Rebels to another Friar, of the same
Order, Residing in Manila.

D R F ,—

The wife of the master of N. has come to visit us in your name, and to offer
us money. God will reward your good works and your kindness to us. We are
not accepting the help you offer us because we have no need of it for the
present. Just now we can say we are rich in comparison with what we were
some time ago. For the last two months we have not been treated with that
ferocity which was displayed against us previously by the rebel chief holding
the rank of Lieut.-Colonel, and the guard in whose custody we were placed:
He treated us in the beginning with extreme rigor, due to his satanic hatred
against religion, and his insatiable greed. He ordered us to be scourged on
four occasions, took all our money, and, finally all we possessed. He took
our clothes, hats, and shoes, and left us nothing but miserable rags for
clothing. But the charity of the people, in spite of the guards, who had the
most severe orders to prevent them, supplied us with all we had need of.

The hatred that the rebel chief has shown towards us has passed all limits.
He made us suffer for a long time most terrible humiliations and vexations.
He and his soldiers injured us in various ways and tortured us. The attitude
of the rebel chief clearly showed us that he was a furious agent of the
Freemasons. By his orders the father Vicar of N. was tied to a tree and
fiercely beaten. In addition to this bad treatment, we were sent every day on
the public roads and forced to work till night-time. We just got what repose
was strictly necessary, and at noon a small repast—all that under a fierce
sun. I was exempted from the work on account of my sickness, and yet I had a
desire to share in the labors and sufferings of my brethren.
The people compassionated us and relieved us as much as possible. They
brought us tea, coffee, cigars, etc., and all that without the knowledge of the
guards, from fear of the rebel chief, who threatened terrible punishment to all
who would dare to give aid to the prisoners. The people of N., as soon as
they learnt that I was a prisoner, began to come to see me, in spite of the long
distance that separated them from me, and brought me clothes and money
with which I was able to provide for my necessities for the time being.

When the rebel chief bearing the title of Lieut.-Colonel heard this news he
got into a great rage, threatened my parishioners that he would have them
arrested and brought before a judge. In consequence of this they were obliged
to fly, but still before their departure they found means of giving me a little
more help. The rebel chief does not reside near us, but comes from time to
time, causing terror to everybody. Happily, his visits are rarer now, and,
thanks to God, we enjoy a certain tranquillity. It is said that he has been
reprimanded for the bad treatment he has inflicted on us. Who knows?

However that may be, he comes but rarely, and leaves us in peace. Taking
advantage of this, an inhabitant of the locality in which we are has obtained
from a chief of a higher grade a remission of the hard labor.

We know from a good source that all communication with the imprisoned
Friars has been forbidden under the most severe penalties. The faithful are
permitted neither to salute us nor to visit us. On Sundays we ask permission
to go to Mass, and when that is granted us we have to go escorted by
bayonets, and are not permitted to say Mass ourselves.

The Governor of the locality is polite enough with us, but does not obtain any
favor for us. Fathers N. and N. have written several times to him, begging
him to get our position bettered as far as he is able. A great number of rebel
chiefs have come to see us, and all seem possessed by a satanic hatred for us,
and instead of pitying us rejoice to see us in a state of misery.

They boast of having taken part in the massacres of the insurrection, and say
to us: “Fathers So-and-So have escaped us, but if we catch them we will
make them pay for their conduct. It has been decreed to exterminate you all;
however, we will allow you to live.” The insurgents demand freedom of
worship, of teaching, of association, civil marriage, etc. These theories are
proclaimed in public, and civil marriages have already taken place. They are
celebrated in presence of the Mayor, according to the new decree, and the fee
is five francs. The Blessed Virgin, who delivered us from death, will deliver
us also from this perilous situation, and by that will put a seal on the favors
she has already bestowed on us.

Kindest remembrances to all the brethren.

Appendix VI.
The Rev. W. Hykes on Burial Fees and
the Paco Cemetery outside Manila.
The following is a sample of the Rev. Mr. Hyke’s report:—

“The burial fees demanded by the priests during an epidemic of smallpox were something
enormous. As many were unable to pay, the dead were lying in the churches and in private
houses in such numbers as to become a serious menace to the public health. The thing was so
scandalous that the Governor-General interfered, and issued orders for all the corpses to be
buried at once. The priests disregarded it and telegraphed to the Government at Madrid, who
reversed the order.

“I heard such a revolting story about the Paco Cemetery (Paco is a suburb of Manila) that I
decided to visit the place and ascertain the facts for myself. In the centre of a plot of ground,
containing about two acres, is a mortuary chapel. Around this in concentric circles, and with a
space of about twenty feet between, are three or four walls. These walls are from five to
seven feet wide, about ten feet high, and contain three tiers of vaults, one above the other,
and of sufficient size to admit a coffin. The Filipino in charge told me that there were 1,278
vaults for adults and 504 for children. The fees are collected five-yearly in advance, and are
$33 for an adult and $16 for a child. I said to the attendant: ‘Suppose that at the end of any
period of five years the friends of the deceased are unable to pay, what do you do?’ ‘We
remove the coffin, take out the remains and throw them on the bone-pile.’ ‘Will you show me
the bone-pile?’ ‘Certainly.’ He conducted me to the rear of the cemetery, up a flight of stone
steps to the top of the wall. The receptacle for the bones was a space between two parallel
walls, about thirty feet long by four wide by eight deep, and it was nearly full. Near by were
two metallic coffins which had evidently just been opened, and on top of the bone-pile were
two complete skeletons. A dog was munching the bones. You can imagine how such a
system would work with an ignorant, superstitious people like the natives. All of the vaults
except three were occupied. The fees amount to more than $50,000 every five years. The
fees of a church near to the hotel at which I was stopping amounted to $100,000 per annum.

“It is not surprising that the great religious corporations are enormously wealthy, and that they
have a power consonant with that wealth. I was shocked at the stories I was told by men,
whose word I could not doubt, of the flagrant immorality of the Spanish Friars. The men who
gave me these statements said they were prepared to give names, dates, and places.”

We sent a cutting containing this part of the report to the ex-Philippine

missionary, residing at present in Rome, to whom we have already referred.
To these lying statements the missionary gives an unqualified contradiction.
He himself was a parish priest during the cholera of 1882–83, when 20,000
people died in six months. In his own parish alone 1,829 died and were
buried, and yet he did not get a penny for burial fees. He adds that the other
parish priests acted like himself.

The revolting description of the treatment of the dead in the Paco cemetery is
a foolish fabric, built on the simple fact that bodies are removed from certain
niches, after five years, to make room for others. Mr. Hykes indirectly
imputes the extortion of enormous burial fees in this cemetery to the clergy.
Whether the fees are enormous or not, they do not go to the Church; for the
missionary Father reveals the fact wilfully kept back by Mr. Hykes—that the
cemetery belongs to the Manila municipality, which gets all the fees. This
cemetery story, told with such apparent honest indignation, is alone sufficient
to discredit all Mr. Hyke’s report, and is a proof that he knows how to color
and misrepresent facts to suit his purpose.

In conclusion, we are anxious to know if Mr. Hykes examined the spiritual

condition of the Protestants in the Philippines. “To our shame be it said,”
observed a British officer, in 1859, “there is no Protestant place of worship
on the island; and even the burial-ground is in an unseemly position and
condition, and, I believe, unconsecrated.”1

1 “Hongkong to Manila,” by H. T. Ellis, R.N.

Colophon

Availability

This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no
restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the
terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at
www.gutenberg.org .

This eBook is produced by the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at

www.pgdp.net .

Prepared from scans made available by the Internet Archive.

Encoding

Revision History

2011-05-29 Started.

External References

This Project Gutenberg eBook contains external references. These links may
not work for you.

Corrections

The following corrections have been applied to the text:

Page Source Correction

14 espiscopal episcopal
30 Saguna Laguna
38 Philipines Philippines
77 the the the
96 Tagalocs Tagalogs
125 Porto Puerto
139 The They
*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE FRIARS IN
THE PHILIPPINES ***

Updated editions will replace the previous one—the old editions will
be renamed.

Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright
law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, so
the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States
without permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special
rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
copying and distributing Project Gutenberg™ electronic works to
protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG™ concept and trademark. Project
Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you charge
for an eBook, except by following the terms of the trademark license,
including paying royalties for use of the Project Gutenberg trademark. If
you do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
trademark license is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any
purpose such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances
and research. Project Gutenberg eBooks may be modified and printed
and given away—you may do practically ANYTHING in the United
States with eBooks not protected by U.S. copyright law. Redistribution
is subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
redistribution.

START: FULL LICENSE

THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
 PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK

To protect the Project Gutenberg™ mission of promoting the free

distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work (or
any other work associated in any way with the phrase “Project
Gutenberg”), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
Gutenberg™ License available with this file or online at
www.gutenberg.org/license.

Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing

Project Gutenberg™ electronic works
1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg™ electronic
work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to and accept
all the terms of this license and intellectual property
(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all the
terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy all
copies of Project Gutenberg™ electronic works in your possession. If
you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
Gutenberg™ electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.

1.B. “Project Gutenberg” is a registered trademark. It may only be used

on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few things
that you can do with most Project Gutenberg™ electronic works even
without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See paragraph
1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project
Gutenberg™ electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg™ electronic
works. See paragraph 1.E below.

1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation (“the

Foundation” or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection
of Project Gutenberg™ electronic works. Nearly all the individual
works in the collection are in the public domain in the United States. If
an individual work is unprotected by copyright law in the United States
and you are located in the United States, we do not claim a right to
prevent you from copying, distributing, performing, displaying or
creating derivative works based on the work as long as all references to
Project Gutenberg are removed. Of course, we hope that you will
support the Project Gutenberg™ mission of promoting free access to
electronic works by freely sharing Project Gutenberg™ works in
compliance with the terms of this agreement for keeping the Project
Gutenberg™ name associated with the work. You can easily comply
with the terms of this agreement by keeping this work in the same format
with its attached full Project Gutenberg™ License when you share it
without charge with others.

1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in
a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check the
laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement before
downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or creating
derivative works based on this work or any other Project Gutenberg™
work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning the
copyright status of any work in any country other than the United States.

1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:

1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
access to, the full Project Gutenberg™ License must appear prominently
whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg™ work (any work on which
the phrase “Project Gutenberg” appears, or with which the phrase
“Project Gutenberg” is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed,
viewed, copied or distributed:

This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States
and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no
restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it
under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this
eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in
the United States, you will have to check the laws of the country
where you are located before using this eBook.
1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg™ electronic work is derived
from texts not protected by U.S. copyright law (does not contain a notice
indicating that it is posted with permission of the copyright holder), the
work can be copied and distributed to anyone in the United States
without paying any fees or charges. If you are redistributing or
providing access to a work with the phrase “Project Gutenberg”
associated with or appearing on the work, you must comply either with
the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 or obtain permission
for the use of the work and the Project Gutenberg™ trademark as set
forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.

1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg™ electronic work is posted

with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any
additional terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will
be linked to the Project Gutenberg™ License for all works posted with
the permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this
work.

1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg™

License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this work
or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg™.

1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this

electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
Gutenberg™ License.

1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including
any word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access
to or distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg™ work in a format other
than “Plain Vanilla ASCII” or other format used in the official version
posted on the official Project Gutenberg™ website
(www.gutenberg.org), you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to
the user, provide a copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of
obtaining a copy upon request, of the work in its original “Plain Vanilla
 ASCII” or other form. Any alternate format must include the full Project
Gutenberg™ License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.

1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,

performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg™ works
unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.

1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing

access to or distributing Project Gutenberg™ electronic works
provided that:

• You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from the
use of Project Gutenberg™ works calculated using the method you
already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is owed to the
owner of the Project Gutenberg™ trademark, but he has agreed to
donate royalties under this paragraph to the Project Gutenberg Literary
Archive Foundation. Royalty payments must be paid within 60 days
following each date on which you prepare (or are legally required to
prepare) your periodic tax returns. Royalty payments should be clearly
marked as such and sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
Foundation at the address specified in Section 4, “Information about
donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.”

• You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies you
in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he does not
agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg™ License. You must
require such a user to return or destroy all copies of the works
possessed in a physical medium and discontinue all use of and all
access to other copies of Project Gutenberg™ works.

• You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any

money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days of
receipt of the work.

• You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free distribution
of Project Gutenberg™ works.
1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg™
electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set forth
in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from the
Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the manager of the
Project Gutenberg™ trademark. Contact the Foundation as set forth in
Section 3 below.

1.F.

1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable

effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
works not protected by U.S. copyright law in creating the Project
Gutenberg™ collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg™
electronic works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may
contain “Defects,” such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
your equipment.

1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except

for the “Right of Replacement or Refund” described in paragraph 1.F.3,
the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the
Project Gutenberg™ trademark, and any other party distributing a
Project Gutenberg™ electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal fees.
YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR
NEGLIGENCE, STRICT LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR
BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE PROVIDED IN
PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS
AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL,
DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE
POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.

1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you

discover a defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it,
you can receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending
a written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you
received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium
with your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you
with the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu
of a refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy is
also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
opportunities to fix the problem.

1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth in
paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you ‘AS-IS’, WITH NO
OTHER WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED,
INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF
MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.

1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied

warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. If
any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the law
of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any
provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.

1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation,

the trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
providing copies of Project Gutenberg™ electronic works in
accordance with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the
production, promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg™
electronic works, harmless from all liability, costs and expenses,
including legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any of the
following which you do or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any
Project Gutenberg™ work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or
deletions to any Project Gutenberg™ work, and (c) any Defect you
cause.
Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project
Gutenberg™

Project Gutenberg™ is synonymous with the free distribution of

electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists
because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
people in all walks of life.

Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the

assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg™’s
goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg™ collection will remain
freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project Gutenberg
Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure and
permanent future for Project Gutenberg™ and future generations. To
learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 and
the Foundation information page at www.gutenberg.org.

Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg

Literary Archive Foundation

The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non-profit

501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the state
of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal Revenue
Service. The Foundation’s EIN or federal tax identification number is
64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent permitted by U.S. federal
laws and your state’s laws.

The Foundation’s business office is located at 809 North 1500 West,

Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887. Email contact links and up
to date contact information can be found at the Foundation’s website and
official page at www.gutenberg.org/contact
Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project
Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation

Project Gutenberg™ depends upon and cannot survive without

widespread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
freely distributed in machine-readable form accessible by the widest
array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations
($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
status with the IRS.

The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating

charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United States.
Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a considerable
effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up with these
requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations where we have
not received written confirmation of compliance. To SEND
DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any particular
state visit www.gutenberg.org/donate.

While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we

have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
approach us with offers to donate.

International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make any

statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from outside
the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.

Please check the Project Gutenberg web pages for current donation
methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other
ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. To
donate, please visit: www.gutenberg.org/donate.

Section 5. General Information About Project

Gutenberg™ electronic works
Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project
Gutenberg™ concept of a library of electronic works that could be
freely shared with anyone. For forty years, he produced and distributed
Project Gutenberg™ eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer
support.

Project Gutenberg™ eBooks are often created from several printed

editions, all of which are confirmed as not protected by copyright in the
U.S. unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily
keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.

Most people start at our website which has the main PG search facility:
www.gutenberg.org.

This website includes information about Project Gutenberg™, including

how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.